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Laws for sale of marijuana urged

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 4. The Auckland University Students’ Associatior supports legislation for the sale of marijuana, the joint Parliamentary Select Committee hearing submissions on four bills concerning drug abuse was told today.

“It does so not as a plea for hedonism but for a more balanced life style, as a balance against the materialism and anti-aestheticism of the older generation,” the association’s president (Mr W. J. Spring) said in his submissions.

Legislation was not expected to correct these social conflicts, he said, but it was needed to facilitate the process.

“We see legalisation as a progressive step in bridging the generation gap and alleviating many of the problems arising from associating this drug with the so-called hard drugs,” said Mr Spring.

The association said it would accept that such a differentiation in penalty and in law would go a long way to assist such a situation.

“It is accepted and the committee must accept that large numbers of persons are using marijuana and that use of this drug is probably increasing,” Mr Spring said. “Established legislation has failed to cope with the situation and may in fact have had a number of detrimental effects.

“Drugs in general are a part of society and it must be accepted that where they are not abused and are a part of a life style they can be safe and sound.” Defects theory Asked what he thought caused people to become addicted to drugs, Mr Spring suggested that some people had “some sort of psychological defects in their personalities”—they attempted to make up for their deficiencies by using hard drugs as a crutch. “It seems quite clear that marijuana is not medically addictive,” he said, “but it may be that some people have a psychological addiction because of their personality problems.” He said the association’s philosophy could be summed up in the thinking of Mill: “If the harms to society are greater than the harms to the individual, then perhaps it should be legislated against.” The bills being considered by the joint Select Committee made no differentiation between the hard and soft drugs. “Taken lightly” “Official promotion of the image of marijuana as a ‘lnlier drug’ makes all official pronouncements on drugs quite laughable to anyone in touch with the use of drugs,” Mr Spring said. “As a result, the official warnings against other drugs such as heroin are not taken seriously and a graduation to seriously debilitating drugs can be expected in some cases. . “Also to place an ‘addict’ in a penal institution for an act which was probably unintentional is vicious and inhumane.”

on the Welfare of Minors’ Bill, introduced to Parliament by Mr T. F. Gill (Nat., Waitemata), Mr Spring said it dealt with

the symptoms, not the causes.

“It makes no attempt to come to grips with the deeprooted wide-ranging social problems involved in drug misuse,” he said. Minors clause

The clause in the bill stating that minors should live with their parents or in a place approved by .their parents would, he said, have wide-ranging social implications in extending the generation gap. “The bill could be used as a new form of police harassment which would probably develop particularly with young Polynesian groups in Auckland,” said Mr Spring. Any society which on the one hand iniposed greater responsibilities and expected greater contributions from its young by providing a reasonably modem education, and on the other legislation with serious social implications, was placing itself in a serious predicament. "To imprison six children for a total of 84 years for “handing around a joint’ is criminally insane,” said Mr Spring. In earlier submissions the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties opposed the term “reasonable excuse” used in the Police Offences Amendment Bill as it gave the courts too little guidance as to just what Parliament regarded as proper grounds for possessing a hypodermic needle. Referring to Mr Gill’s bill, the council submitted during cross-examination that parents’ views of when the

apron-strings should be severed were not always right. Submissions opposing measures in the four bills were made by an Auckland University lecturer, Mrs Elizabeth Timms, on behalf of 140 members of the university staff. Mr I. H. Boyd, director of Victoria University student welfare services, said that there Was evidence of increasing non-medical use of drugs by New Zealanders—not necessarily young people —“there is a lack of evidence to suggest that in New Zealand or in any other country repressive legislation has had any substantial effect.” Timing criticised Prominent members of the community had strongly suggested a more tolerant attitude to the use of cannabis, and it was unfortunate that the Government was introducing three restrictive bills at the same time.

A full inquiry into the social and medical factors of drug use was urged. Mr Boyd said his group favoured changing the cannabis laws, but did not propose legalisation of cannabis before an inquiry had been held. He supported the present laws on narcotics, except those regarding cannabis, but said the additional penalties proposed would have little value and might only aggravate the situation. “Law flouted” Mr W. J. Scott, chairman of the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties, said that many young people were not convinced that cannabis was harmful and were flouting the law. The situation was beginning to resemble the prohibition era in the United States arid to a limited extent the six o’clock closing period in New Zealand. The hearing of submissions will continue tomorrow.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19710805.2.16

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 2

Word Count
917

Laws for sale of marijuana urged Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 2

Laws for sale of marijuana urged Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 2