Pubdate: Sat, 16 Aug 2003
Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: Allied Press Limited, 2003
Contact:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/otago
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/925
Author: NZPA
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)

PARLIAMENT REJECTS HEMP BILL

Wellington: A bid by Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos to
legalise industrial hemp was doomed to failure
yesterday, after a select committee recommended
Parliament not support his member's Bill.

Industrial hemp would have been removed from the Misuse of Drugs Act
under the Misuse of Drugs (Industrial Hemp) Amendment Bill, sponsored
by the Green MP.

Mr Tanczos, a Rastafarian who smokes marijuana for religious reasons,
had intended to make clear industrial hemp was not a drug, but a
useful cash crop.

He faced allegations his proposal was a "Trojan horse" to permit the
legalisation of marijuana by stealth.

In a report tabled in Parliament yesterday, the primary production
committee recommended by majority that the legislation not pass.

The committee spent just four hours 44 minutes considering the Bill,
which was referred to it more than two years ago

It did not even consider public submissions on the
Bill.

The Green Party opposed the decision that the Bill not
proceed.

Parliament will now undoubtedly accept the committee's recommendation,
and kill off the Bill.

Mr Tanczos would not be able to put it back in the member's ballot in
this parliamentary term.

He said he was disappointed the Government had chosen not to use his
Bill as an "obvious" basis for industry regulations.

"The Government has heavily borrowed the intentions of my member's
Bill, which they had stalled for two years, and sacrificed it in order
to take the credit."

Chairman David Carter said the committee initially opted to defer
consideration when Health Minister Annette King in 2001 agreed to a
two-year industrial hemp trial.

That trial was to end this month, but the committee had been told it
had been extended for another year.