"For gangs, the Misuse of Drugs Act (1975) has been one of the best recruiting tools they’ve ever had. Criminalisation of a raft of illicit drugs not only provides them with a wildly lucrative black market.

...

Once users are prosecuted and get sent to jail, gangs offer not only a vital form of self-preservation on the inside, but are (often) the only willing employer waiting on the outside."

#GordonCampbell, 2025

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2511/S00036/on-why-we-should-de-criminalise-personal-drug-use.htm

#drugs #DrugLawReform #decriminalisation

Mike Sabin has come a long way since his MethCon days (and a con it certainly was);

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/experts-warn-nz-drug-laws-outdated-as-calls-for-reform-grow-the-elephant/FTWPJIPOCRH2TLXOD56WNKF4XM/

But he's still stuck in a 20th century paradigm where there is a single 'just say no' approach to "drugs", as a general category. One that nobody would accept if it included 3 of the most dangerous recreational drugs; alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical opioids.

#podcasts #NZHerald #TheElephant #drugs #DrugLawReform #MikeSabin #MethCon

"[Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa] believes that endless amendments to an unworkable law are not the solution. It is time to replace drug laws with a single, coherent Psychoactive Drug Law—one that regulates all drugs, including currently legal substances, such as alcohol. A modern drug law grounded in science, evidence, and human rights, promoting health education and harm reduction under the administration of the Ministry of Health."

#HRCA, 2025

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2511/S00016/enough-is-enough-coalition-calls-for-a-new-drug-law.htm

#DrugLawReform

Chris Fowlie warns that if you've made cannabis brownies, or tinctures, or do any processing of it, you're now at risk of being charged with manufacture of a class B drug;

https://feeds.95bfm.com/link/22115/17199561/marijuana-media-with-chris-fowlie-october-30-2025

The MODA drug classification system is such bullshit. You know what else is in class B? Cocaine, one of the 5 most physically and societally dangerous recreational drugs in use, according to the famous Lancet paper by David Nutt et al;

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/abstract

(1/2)

#drugs #DrugLawReform

During the 2023 election senior Labour figures were saying they would consider decriminalising personal use of *all* drugs, like in Portugal;

https://norml.org.nz/tokethevote-2023-your-cannabis-based-voting-guide/

I want to see them making a firm commitment to that for 2026. Including allowing production for personal use.

Then we can finally move on to a public debate about how to regulate supply of each drug, on its own terms. Based on the evidence available, and what's likely to minimise harm.

#PolicyNZ #DrugLawReform

#Listening to Not a Crime, a drug liberation anthem by Gogol Bordello;

https://sideonedummy.bandcamp.com/track/not-a-crime

One of many radical and danceable tunes from their super fun 2005 album Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike. If you like ska or klezmer music, and especially if you like both, and you haven't ever heard this album, chuck it on! Punk doctor's orders : P

#music #punk #ska #klezmer #GogolBordello #cannabis #DrugLawReform

"One way in which Jordan's acute use of alcohol likely contributed to his death is by compromising his judgement and decision-making. I consider his intoxication helps explain his very unwise decision to jump into a plainly unsafe river not once, but twice."

#HeidiWrigley, Coroner, 2024

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/534103/coroner-finds-alcohol-swollen-river-factor-in-jordan-adams-drowning

This is why alcohol is illegal and we prefer our young people to use less dangerous drugs like cannabis. Oh wait ...

#DrugHarms #DrugLawReform #cannabis