Synthetic cannabis manufacturers are putting lives in danger as they tweak products to get around bans, a forensic scientist says.

New Plymouth teenager Logan Wilson was admitted to hospital last week with kidney and heart failure after smoking the legal high Kryptonite.

The 19-year-old spent five days in the intensive care unit at Taranaki Base Hospital, where he was put in an induced coma and was on a ventilator.

Jake Bertie, of NZ Forensic Consultancy Solutions, told the Taranaki Daily News manufacturers were making minor modifications to the chemicals used in the products to get around government bans.

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The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party is threatening to seek an injunction to force Maori TV to include it in a debate ahead of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election. The June 25 debate is only expected to feature the Green, Labour, Mana and Maori candidates. ALCP leader Michael Appleby said he had complained to the Human Rights and Race Relations commissions. Maori TV said it had nothing to do with race. It simply invited the four frontrunners.

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One of New Zealand's longest serving political leaders has been denied the chance to debate his position on Maori TV.

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party leader Michael Appleby is making a bid for the Ikaroa-Rawhiti seat in the coming by-election - but was barred from participating in the candidates' debate on Native Affairs on June 3.

Producers of Maori TV's flagship current affairs programme told Mr Appleby, 66, that he could not take part in the debate as he did not have Maori credibility in the electorate.

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Clever Chinese manufacturer with links to NZ just one of the chemical masterminds outwitting authorities.

When a worldwide shortage of MDMA disrupted the manufacture of Ecstasy, party goers didn't have to wait long for their fix.

Chemists simply experimented to create a substitute called mephedrone, a chemical similar in structure to methcathinone (an illegal drug that itself is similar to methamphetamine).

The recipe for the legal drug was posted on the internet and mephedrone, later called Meow Meow, became the new Ecstasy in the UK and Europe.

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I was pleased to read the letter from J Hatch and the column by Grant Miller in response to articles about my stance on drug regulation, particularly cannabis. This is a debate that we need to have and I hope it continues.

What hasn't come through very well in the articles is exactly what my position is. I actually don't think politicians should make the decision whether or not New Zealand should decriminalise cannabis or any other substance. That should be left to scientists and the health professionals who deal with the impacts of substance use, misuse and abuse.

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Grant Miller's pathetic attempt to justify cannabis prohibition ( Standard, May 27) ignores the most fundamental principles of justice and human rights, while making assertions which are not supported by any evidence whatsoever.

To give just one example, he asserts that " ending prohibition of cannabis would naturally lead to more people trying it. The more people who try it, the more that become addicted".

News flash, Grant - prohibition has not stopped anyone trying it, and it never will. As far as addiction is concerned, cannabis is less addictive than coffee - perhaps Grant thinks we should ban that too?

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Regarding Matthew Dallas' May 25 editorial, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of Anglo cultural norms, cannabis would be legal. Unlike alcohol, cannabis has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Cannabis can be harmful, but criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

Consider the experience of the former land of the free. Here in the United States, police searches on public transit, drug-sniffing dogs in schools and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties, while failing at preventing cannabis use. The United States has higher rates of cannabis use than the Netherlands, where cannabis is legally available.

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The author of ' Legalising drugs a wrong step' ( Miller On Politics, May 27) makes a series of assumptions that contradict international experience.

The first is the idea that somehow young people are influenced by the criminal status of cannabis, that they are put off using it. Absolute waffle.

Youth have a strong sense of justice. The idea that cannabis, a far less harmful substance than alcohol, is criminalised while alcohol is widely promoted reeks of hypocrisy and vested interest.

The youth that we should be most concerned about, those whose upbringing has negatively impacted their self esteem, are actually more likely to use cannabis because it is illegal. " Look at me, I'm an outlaw."

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I totally agree with Grant Miller on not legalising marijuana.

Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway's attitude is completely out of touch with the many victims of marijuana use and the long-term destruction for their families - especially once a family member is addicted.

Having managed the repeated cycle of psychotic behaviour that ensues from real cannabis addiction by a family member over 10 years - can I please ask Mr Lees-Galloway, is he at all familiar with this, at a real gut level? The social, emotional, and economic disaster of what he's suggesting legalising?

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Others Watching to See If NZ Law Has Desired Result.

New Zealand once prided itself on being a "social laboratory" for advances in public welfare. Within a few months it will become a laboratory in every sense: for the approval of new recreational drugs. Other countries are taking a close interest in Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne's proposed licensing system for synthetic psychoactive substances, as Mr Dunne found when he addressed a United Nations Drug Convention in Vienna recently. Drug researcher Chris Wilkins told the Weekend Herald he found the same interest at a drug policy conference in Bogota, Colombia last week.

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If the movement to legalise cannabis had a theme song, and it's surprising that it doesn't, the old pub anthem Tumthumping would be apt. " I get knocked down/ But I get up again/ You're never going to keep me down."

Every few years proponents of pot are taken a little more seriously, and the reasoning for decriminalisation or legalisation sounds a little less radical.

Though the furore over synthetic, legal highs, has helped push the spotlight back on the natural stuff, the impetus for debate remains unchanged the present legislation is outdated and deficient.

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Lees- Galloway May Not Represent the Views on Drugs of the People in His Electorate.

When Palmerston North MP Iain Lees- Galloway started his speech in Parliament last month concerning the Psychoactive Substances Bill, there was an interjection.

The city MP was talking about " a mechanism by which some drugs can become legal and make it to market in a regulated - I hope a very tightly regulated - market".

" That, I believe, is a very positive step in our drugs laws," he said.

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TV Vote Inspires Cannabis Call

Palmerston North MP Iain LeesGalloway wants Parliament to consider decriminalising cannabis while discussing legislation to regulate legal highs.

" What we know is that prohibition causes more harm than good," he told the Manawatu Standard.

" It should be science and not politics that determines the relative harms of specific drugs.

" My view is that cannabis would be a good candidate for examination."

Mr Lees- Galloway, Labour's associate health spokesman, was responding to the result of a drug decriminalisation debate on TV3' s The Vote.

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The owner of the Switched On Gardener chain of hydroponic stores has been sentenced to four years and three months in prison.

Judge Andree Wiltens refused the option of home detention as he sentenced Michael Quinlan in the Auckland District Court yesterday.

General manager Peter Bennett, 43, was also sentenced, receiving a prison term of three years and nine months.

Two women broke down in tears as the sentence was read out to the packed courtroom.

The men were found guilty in December of supplying equipment for cultivating cannabis, but both were acquitted of being part of an organised criminal group.

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Despite promises, no money from crims' assets has gone to alcohol and drug treatment.

Not one cent of the millions of dollars worth of assets seized from criminals has been funnelled into drug treatment or resources to fight organised crime as promised when the enabling law came into force.

Nearly $150 million worth of homes, cars, boats, cash, jewellery and other valuables has been restrained since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was passed in December 2009, of which $27 million has been forfeited to the Crown.

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A Timaru professional man smokes a joint most evenings and does not think it affects his work.

John believes the locally grown marijuana he buys is safer than synthetic cannabis which is sold legally.

"People assume legal highs are safe because they are legal, and marijuana is unsafe because it is illegal."

He would like to see all drugs having the same status because prohibition does not work. However he would not like them to be available to anyone under 20, and concedes that no drug is safe. "It's not good for young minds." John was open about his drug use with his three children, now adults. One smokes, one doesn't and the other dabbles occasionally.

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A Collingwood bartender caught growing 122 cannabis plants told police he made juice out of the cannabis leaves to provide relief from a medical condition.

Police raided Krishna Mason's Puramahoi property in Golden Bay after spotting plants growing during their annual aerial search.

Police found 122 plants on the property, which had a caravan and several out buildings.

The plants ranged in size from 20cm to 2 metres tall. They were reasonably healthy, police said.

Mason showed police a banana box containing 125 grams of cannabis.

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A UNITED Nations report has highlighted the extent of drug abuse in New Zealand, including " growing concern" over the misuse of prescription drugs.

The 22-page document, entitled "World situation with regard to Drug Abuse" states: " The highest prevalence of opioid use was estimated to be in North America and Australia and New Zealand, which in fact reflected the misuse of prescription painkillers."

The UN's report stated prescription drug misusers were often "young adults, women, elderly patients and healthcare professionals".

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YOUNG teenagers who smoke cannabis may not be stunting their intellect, says a new study challenging a claim by New Zealand scientists last year.

The earlier, and widely praised, Dunedin study found people who started smoking cannabis in their teenage years, and kept using it for years afterwards, showed an average decline in IQ of eight points. It sampled more than 1000 people, comparing their IQs from when they were 13 to 38.

The study also found those who started using cannabis after the age of 18 did not show the same decline in IQ.

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I have changed my mind about cannabis. I don't think it should be legalised and so normalised the avowed aim of some lobby groups but I do accept that it's madness to have overflowing jails bursting with its lowest-level dealers and the people they sell to.

The lobby groups are full of hot air and paranoia but low on presentation of facts. However, the Justice Ministry has convinced me this week with its statistics on how this minor offending is taking up court time that would be better spent on speeding up justice for serious offenders.

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