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A change to New Zealand’s policy on drugs might be on the way.
Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne told RNZ’s Morning Report today he was not sure New Zealand's drug law was still fit-for-purpose and he wanted drugs to be viewed as more of a health issue. He also said he was open to reviewing evidence around the decriminalisation of cannabis.
“Under the general focus of trying to get the appropriate legal balance, the issues of the utilisation of drug paraphernalia are being looked at, issues relating to the penalty regime is being looked at. And I'm also asking the expert advisory committee on drugs when it classifies drugs, to take a focus that is more health-related than previously.”
Green Party health spokesperson Kevin Hague said he wanted cannabis legalised and regulated. He told Morning Report the Green Party was currently clarifying its drug policy, but expected it to favour the decriminalisation of cannabis.
He said all drugs should be treated from a health perspective and regulated in terms of their potential for harm.
The potential change comes as a joint study by Johns Hopkins University in the US and the British medical journal The Lancet says the punitive approach to drug offending has done more harm than good.
Five former presidents have also said the global War on Drugs needs to be completely overhauled, according to the Economist magazine. In it, the former presidents argued the War on Drugs was costing taxpayers $US100 billion per year, but was helping traffickers earn $US300b a year.
The Johns Hopkins and The Lancet report said the War on Drugs had undercut public health worldwide and done little to combat drug use.
The research found that harsh drug control policies actually increased the risk of death from overdose. It also found that enforcement of drug control policies undermined the wellbeing and health of drug users and the communities they live in.
New Zealand drug enforcement was far less draconian than those overseas, but Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said the message from abroad still had a lesson for New Zealand.
“We might not be fighting drug growers with helicopter gunships or executing drug traffickers as they do in China and Iran. But we still have a punitive approach,” he said.
“Despite New Zealand spending a lot of money on law enforcement, on locking people up and sending them to prison, New Zealanders still remain among the highest users of illegal drugs in the world.
“A lot of people are finally figuring out that a tough response is not doing anything to address the underlying causes of problematic drug use.”
A version of this story, by Eric Frykberg, was first published on rnz.co.nz