Mild Greens

50 Wainoni Rd

CHRISTCHURCH

Dear Committee Members,

The Mild Greens appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the Smokefree legislation, and request the right to speak to our submission.

Since our group supports principled application of harm minimisation policy, we are conditionally supportive of "smoke-free" initiatives, provided that tobacco is not the only Smokefree subject, and provided that the freedoms of all smokers and passive smokers are protected equitably. This is certainly not the case at present.

Lawmakers in New Zealand must recognise that "smoking" means different things to different people these days. Many young people for example directly associate "smoke" with marijuana - which has a roughly parallel uptake amongst the youth population. Others associate smoke with Christchurch winters, which feature 30-40 days of air pollution exceeding World Health standards.

While it may be unrealistic to incorporate fossil fuel burning within the Smokefree Environments Act, marijuana, as a "herbal smoked product" consumed by 15% of surveyed adults, is certainly deserving of the sort of policy initiatives used to minimise tobacco related harm. In fact, it is utterly illogical not to accommodate cannabis here, with similar restrictions for example on advertising, and supply to minors.

The committee, having recently completed hearings on cannabis health strategies, will be well aware that the PROHIBITION does not work. The existing Misuse of Drugs Act classification of cannabis/hemp in particular, instead of reducing harm, costs billions of dollars creating numerous unintended consequences. Costs include high uptake, criminality, crime, corruption, repression, discrimination, environmental degradation, barriers to effective health promotion, etc: - HARM MAXIMISATION in other words.

If the intention of the Misuse of Drugs Act is prevention of harm, and minimal supply of drugs, then the Act is grossly fraudulent in its application. If the intention of the National Drug Strategy is to integrate and co-ordinate effective alcohol, tobacco, gambling and other drug interventions, then the separation of criteria between legal and illegal drugs is fundamentally unprincipled.

The Mild Greens therefore see the Smokefree Environments bill as a powerful opportunity for Government to fulfil the long apparent "legislative implication" unresolved within New Zealand's alcohol and drug policy. We refer of course to DE-CRIMINALISATION of cannabis users, and the implicit partial legalisation of marijuana. In other words the implementation for the first time of genuine Harm Minimisation policy. Piecemeal adjustments to alcohol and tobacco and gambling legislation are insignificant compared to the far greater "health promotion" benefits alone of removing "double standards" and bringing the drugs in everyday usage in New Zealand under credible and equitable control.

A realistic and consistent "controlled availability" and deglamorised approach to the commonly consumed alcohol, tobacco and marijuana is overdue and urgently required. Mutual community respect is the key to good smoke-free policy. Mutual community respect, however, is impossible while one sixth of the population are unjustly stigmatised as criminals, because of their choice of smoked herbal product.

Conditional Support for the Bill

1. Recommendation - that the Select Committee directly resolve the harm minimisation debate as particularly it relates to gross cannabis/tobacco inequity, incorporating cannabis within Enhanced Protections of the Smokefree Environments Act 20001.

2. Recommendation - that in the interests of informed consent and cultural freedoms, "designated smoking areas" include licensed and public areas specific to tobacco and/or cannabis consumption.

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Kevin O'Connell, Blair Anderson - social ecologists