MAY 24, 2009
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party Mt Albert candidate Dakta Green today called the news that Police have been growing their own crops of cannabis in order to test its potency an “extraordinary conflict of interest”, saying it was the job of the Police to “enforce current laws, not to seek justification to continue prohibition laws. Research is the work of researchers and scientists. Politicians are those responsible for justifying current cannabis laws not the Police. Whilst scientists have been declined the opportunity in New Zealand to research cannabis based medicines, Police have been growing cannabis to further their crime busting duties. It is quite bizarre.”
“The DSIR can easily test the strengths of seized drugs, but I want to know what business is it of Police to know what the THC levels of different strains of cannabis are? How does that information assist them in their job of arresting pot smoking New Zealanders?”, asked Dakta Green. “This is yet another absurd example of taxpayer’s dollars being thrown on the Drug War fire and wasted. ”
New Zealand has the highest arrest rate in the world for cannabis. Over 130,000 New Zealanders carry criminal records for cannabis offenses. Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for cannabis possession alone.
“The only people who should be interested in THC levels are those working with medical marijuana patients”, Dakta Green stated.
Cannabis and cannabis extracts are being legally prescribed in New Zealand, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, and various states of the US to treat a variety of conditions including MS, glaucoma, AIDS wasting syndrome, and nausea and other side effects caused by chemotherapy.
“Cannabis is such a broad-spectrum medicine that different strains, each with their own unique blend of active compounds and strengths are used to treat specific conditions. This, combined with the fact that it’s an easily grown organic medicine, makes it perfect as both a primary and complimentary health treatment”, Dakta Green said.
“There has been so much research done on cannabis over the past forty years: that it’s a safe and effective medicine is now an established fact. How is can best be employed in the affordable treatment of a myriad of illnesses and conditions is a whole field of research waiting to be explored further … but not by police officers whose time is better spent catching criminals rather than somehow trying to justify going after pot smokers like myself”, concluded Dakta Green.
Dakta Green will appear in Auckland District Court this Tuesday, facing a charge of publicly smoking cannabis.