Simon Power is the MP for Rangitikei, the electorate that completely surrounds mine in Palmerston North. I see quite a bit of him and get on with him quite well. Generally speaking I think he’s one of the more sensible Nats and definitely one of the most competent.
But Simon’s response to the Misuse of Drugs Act review is wrong. To dismiss such a comprehensive piece of work out of hand not only shows disdain for the Law Commission but for the people of New Zealand.
It’s an issues paper, which means it is open for discussion and consultation. But Simon has shut down the discussion and basically told us there is no point in engaging in the consultation. All because John Key decided he would make a ‘war on P’ central to his popularity strategy.
Of course the National Party is a conservative party so it’s not great surprise. But should being conservative be an excuse to ignore any new ideas?
It seems new, good ideas don’t get much air time at cabinet. Look at what the first year of National-led government has brought us: Laissez-faire economics, tax-cuts for the rich, cuts to the public sector, National Standards in primary schools. All old ideas. All bad ideas.
I hope the bigger thinkers in cabinet can start having a bit more say. C’mon Simon, you’re better than this.
I’m sure that if you’ve ever been rung in the middle of the night to hospital to watch a relative with brain bleeds slowly die because a stoned young man kicked him in the back of the head you might agree with Simon.
Marijuana is an insidious drug with negative short-term and long-term effects. Having incentives to making it more widely available will not help New Zealand.
Just look at how New Zealand is going with alcohol being more and more widely available.
Frankly Simon Power is a follower of populist law and order strategy. Unless he is an idiot he must know that most of what he espouses has no basis in reality. Harsher punishments DO NOT reduce crime, DO NOT make us safer. He has been National’s poster boy for flagship “scare the folks, then pass useless legislation that makes them feel safe, even if it makes no difference to their safety). This report is one, of many, that is published with genuine ways to address the core drivers of crime. Mind you Labour indulges in the same populist one-term thinking strategy.
Start with educating the public, through media (so start educating them), about what actually works and what doesnt…
Gnat Exterminator, READ the report, it might actually reduce the number of stoned kids kicking people in the head which will result in less hospital visits to people who have been kicked in the head by stoned young men. NOT taking on board these kinds of recommendations, and going down National’s track we will simply be spending more and more on stoned kids going through the justice system, possibly to jail, and more to follow them. It’s a good report and it deserves a reading by the Minister.
Tracey – wishing it so doesn’t make it happen. People wasted out of their minds make bad decisions, doesn’t matter what the drug is. We have a diversion scheme for first time offenders to give them a second chance, and already the policing of drug offences is light where no other criminal activity or public safety is involved.
The proposals are similar to moving to warnings and infringment notices for Disorderly Behaviour and Public Nuisance. Do you think doing this would make Courtenay Place safer on a Saturday Night?
TGE
I’ve read the report and think it deserves a reading by the Justice Minister. According to you Courtenay Place is unsafe now and stoned kids kick people’s heads in, so you tell me, what do we and Mr Power have to lose by considering this report? Keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll keep getting heads kicked in by stoned youths, really TGE that’s your solution???? heads in the sand change nothing and complain that the status quo doesnt change anything.
Tracey – What “We” have to lose is kids like Matthew, who was a promising rugby league player destined to be NRL/International level. Instead he spent his 20s in prison. Because he smoked pot, and made bad decisions one night, and killed a man.
Tell me why we should make it easier for Matthew (or anyone else) to smoke pot without sanction? What good can come from making an intoxicant more freely available.
Instead we should make Gangs into criminal organisations and use legal strategies to force them to disband – forfeit of property, be a criminal offence to belong to a gang, non-association orders for released prisoners, etc. Cut off the supply.
Tell me why we should make it easier for Matthew (or anyone else) to smoke pot without sanction? What good can come from making an intoxicant more freely available.
Tell me where in the report it says “making more freely available”. It doesn’t.
But the risk of criminal sanctions did not deter Matthew from smoking pot. It deters almost no one. Every few years the Auckland University School of Medicine drug use survey asks people who why they stopped or don’t smoke marijuana. Its legal status comes way, way down the list of reasons.
In Europe, Sweden operates a strongly prohibitionist system. It has about the same rate of heroin use as the Netherlands — but its rates of drug-related death are higher, and rising. They’re falling in the Netherlands, and more so in Portugal, where personal possession of all drugs was decriminalised several years ago.
And Portugal actually operates on a wider definition of drug-related death than Sweden, which narrowed its definition. So if it was determined that Matthew’s violence was drug-related, his victim would go into Portugal’s count. And still it’s falling.
Crimes of physical violence such as what you’ve described are much more strongly associated with alcohol than cannabis (ask any cop). Would you support the prohibition of alcohol on that basis?
Gnat
Read the report, then read it again, then look for reliable information on dealing with drug users instead of using populist “couch wisdom” (oxymoron). You seem to think that your idea to cut off supply is a new one. It’s not and it fails over and over again.
Russell thanks for throwing in some facts. I don’t think it will make much difference to Gnat.