Pubdate: Wed, 21 May 2014
Source: Dargaville & District News (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2014, Dargaville & District News
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/2306
Author: Jared Dennis
Page: 3

DIVIDED VIEWS OVER BAN

DARGAVILLE'S illegal tinny houses may be the big winners after the
government's U-turn on the legal sale of synthetic cannabis.

With the change in the law that came into effect on May 8, Dargaville
retailer Jonette Bartlett has stopped selling legal highs and has sent
back all her stock to suppliers for a refund.

But the B'arch Wear owner says she feels that new regulations will
force her former customers to go back to smoking marijuana.

'' A lot of them aren't happy,'' she says.

''They would like to see something happen around cannabis
laws.

''They smoked synthetics so that they could pass drug tests for their
jobs.

''It would be good to see cannabis legalised or decriminalised.''

Bartlett says the legal aspect of the law change worries her because
people would now have to ''go find a tinny house''.

''There are some people who like to have their glass of wine in the
evenings and there are others who like to have a smoke [of
cannabis],'' she says.

''They all hop up to go to work the next day, but the smokers are
labelled criminals and risk losing their job''.

As well as the recreational aspects of the legal highs, Bartlett says
her customers also experienced positive medical benefits from smoking
synthetic cannabis.

A person with back pain could cope with the side effects of their
prescribed medicine, while another had fewer epileptic fits.

''Everyone was using it for different reasons,'' Bartlett
says.

''It's not just young people who want to get out of
it.

''People do not want to feel like criminals when they are using a
natural remedy.''

She says she will sell legal highs again if the law changes to allow
it.

Phil Paikea says he agrees it is likely users will go back to tinny
houses, but he does not want legal highs to be reintroduced.

Paikea is a family violence intervention advocate for the Bream Bay
Community Support Trust and says that everyone he has talked to is
pleased to see the ban come into effect.

''We don't want to be dealing with out of control teenagers or adults
driving under the influence of a substance that cannot be detected,''
he says.

The anti-drug activist, who was a supporter of the protests in
Dargaville about synthetic cannabis, says he had heard of a few people
in the community who had been badly affected by legal highs and that
it featured on violence reports he had seen from Whangarei.

Cannabis, on the other hand, has been around for ''as long as I can
remember'', he says.

''We are never going to get rid of it.

''This is one less drug (legal highs) that we have to contend
with.

''We are losing the battle with so many of the other drugs that we
didn't need another one to worry about.''

Paikea says he thinks there is some room to discuss decriminalising
marijuana for medicinal use.

''But anything you smoke has got to be bad for you in my
opinion.

''Except smoked fish.''
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MAP posted-by: Matt