Pubdate: Sun, 20 Apr 2014
Source: Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2014 Sunday Star-Times
Contact:  http://www.sundaystartimes.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1064

POPULARITY OF LEGAL HIGHS HAS SHIFTED DRUGS DEBATE

OPINION: Harmful legal products make mockery of drug laws

More than one of our national addictions was laid bare last week.

It turns out that not only are we a nation of royal obsessives, but
we're rather fond of our recreational drugs.

The 2014 Global Drug Survey reveals some disturbing information about
New Zealanders' liking for psychoactive drugs, and so-called "legal
highs" in particular.

It turns out that we share with the United Kingdom the dubious
distinction of being the highest users (on a per capita basis,
obviously) of synthetic cannabis products in the world.

Worse, we also have the highest rate of emergency medical treatment
following drug ingestion in the world.

And yes, these two statistics are connected.

According to the Global Drug Survey, drug users who consume synthetic
cannabis products are 30 times more likely to seek medical attention
than users of traditional, organic cannabis.

Weed is the third-most popular drug in the world - after alcohol and
tobacco, of course.

Another recent drugs survey found 75 per cent of us have smoked
cannabis at one stage in our lives and 30 per cent of Kiwis have used
the drug in the past month.

And yet organic cannabis, which while still dangerous is hardly the
most pernicious of substances, is illegal - and synthetic variants
that appear to be far more harmful are not.

A growing number of New Zealanders are asking how this can be.
Parents, teenagers, drug counsellors, medical professionals and media
are all asking the same question: why is a substance that is addicting
and harming thousands of mostly young people still being sold in shops
around the country?

There is no easy answer to this, as the Government has been quick to
point out. Because our drug laws were designed to ban certain
substances such as MDMA or cocaine or cannabis - whose chemical
composition remains basically the same - they are powerless against a
new wave of technically advanced synthetic drugs, whose manufacturers
merely need to tweak their composition to continually circumvent the
law.

As Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne pointed out last week, trying
to ban synthetic cannabis is also likely to force the sale of the
popular drugs underground and into the hands of the criminal
underworld. And so the Government is trying a new approach, focusing
on the legality of drugs that cause harm.

It is a laudable approach, and yet in doing so Dunne and his
colleagues have opened Pandora's box.

Because if we're talking harm, then none cause so much misery as
alcohol and tobacco. And under such logic, the sale of MDMA, or
Ecstasy to use its street name, should be legalised - since there are
but a handful of deaths attributed to its use. Ad Feedback

Also, Dunne's argument that forcing synthetic cannabis underground is
a bad idea flies in the face of the Government's policy on all other
illegal drugs; all of which are traded by organised crime and
relatively easily obtainable - for a price.

Dunne has point-blank refused to consider the decriminalisation of
cannabis, despite the obvious argument that it would likely do more to
kill the trade in the more harmful synthetics than any government
regulation could manage.

That is unsurprising. New Zealand has a long history of punitive
sanctions for those who consume or sell recreational drugs.

But synthetic drugs are unlikely to disappear. And they are forcing
society to confront some uncomfortable questions.

Sooner or later, we need a national debate on drug use and abuse: what
we are prepared to tolerate, what is unenforceable, and where we
should place our resources.

There may come a point when it is easier and more beneficial to focus
on tackling drug addiction through education and treatment rather than
costly and increasingly futile attempts to ban them.
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MAP posted-by: Matt