U.S. official praises N.Z. drug attitudes

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32957, 1 July 1972, Page 2

U.S. official praises N.Z. drug attitudes

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 30. The attitude to drug abuse in New Zealand was more advanced than in the United States and many other countries, the head of the United States Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, Mr Raymond Shafer, said.

New Zealand tended to treat drug abuse as a health rather than a criminal problem, he said. Mr Shafer, a former Governor of Pennsylvania, and three other members of the commission arrived in New Zealand yesterday to study drug problems and attitudes here. The United States Congress set up the commission for two years. The first year was devoted to studying marijuana, and the second year is being spent looking at hard drugs. The commission is visiting various countries looking at the various ways of dealing with prevention, education, and law enforcement. On their present trip the commission members have so far

visited Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. Mr Shafer told a press conference that penalties for possession of drugs in New Zealand are less severe than in the United States, and most other countries. HEALTH PROBLEM He praised New Zealand’s method of treating drug users as a health problem. This has been recommended in the commission’s first report to Congress. Mr Shafer said his commission believed that persons possessing marijuana for private use should not be treated as criminals, but that peddlers should. “Over-all we are trying to discourage any use of the drug,” Mr Shafer said.

It was definitely felt that marijuana should not be legalised, Mr Shafer said. “If we had known then what we know now, we would never have legalised alcohol,” he said. Alcohol was an even greater problem than drug abuse in the United States. The use of marijuana was only a “fad,” Mr Shafer said. Surveys had shown that 60 per cent of the people who had i-ed marijuana now did not. RATED THIRD Mr Shafer rated drug abuse third on a list of social problems in the United States. First was the economy, and second the international problem and in particular the Vietnam war. In New Zealand Mr Shafer has had talks with the Police Department’s board of control of the National Drug Intelligence Bureau, the Board of Health’s committee on drug dependency and drug abuse, the Health Department and Foreign Affairs Ministry.

He left New Zealand this afternoon.