‘Flash cars bought with drugs money’

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 3

‘Flash cars bought with drugs money’

PA Wellington Marijuana traffickers are driving around Northland in flash cars bought with drug money, the member of Parliament for Northern Maori, Dr Bruce Gregory, asserted yesterday. Dr Gregory said he respected “the audacity” of the Whangarei educational psychologist, Mr Les Gray, who last week said that marijuana was preferable to alcohol. Dr Gregory said however, that he could not agree with much of what Mr Gray had said. Mr Gray is now under investigation by the Education Department after comments made at a parentteachers meeting in Dargaville, where he called for the decriminalisation of marijuana to remove the “rumours, hypocrisy and double standards” surrounding the use of the drug. Dr Gregory said that the issue had “lain bubbling be-

neath the surface of our society for too long. “How many private functions, socials, and parties does one attend and yet not smell the characteristic sniff of marijuana?” Very few indeed, he said. There are people in our communities, and I can say this of the north, who are driving around in big flash vehicles obtained from illgained earnings through marijuana trafficking.” Dr Gregory said that Northland, apparently, had

a reputation overseas for the high quality of its marijuana. It was important for young people to be given information about the likely effects of taking marijuana, such as its effects on body chemistry, memory, intellect, and social habits. Teachers should be familiar with its effects and the recognition of them in young people if society was to overcome “this growing scourge,” Dr Gregory said.