By Emma Mackie
A TV3 documentary about a proposed law change that could go easy on cannabis users airs tonight, but documentary maker Savage says while cannabis is not the demon weed, it is still a problematic drug.
The former University of Auckland lecturer and filmmaker says he wanted the documentary (Inside NZ: High Times on at 8:30pm tonight) to give a balanced view of cannabis issues while highlighting that current laws are ineffective.
“The two things we wanted to do with the documentary is to say cannabis is not as bad as people often say, and on the other hand it’s actually worse than some people realise.
“In particular we wanted people to understand that you can get addicted to cannabis, you can crash your car when you’re stoned, and it is damaging for young people to smoke cannabis."
However, Savage believes cannabis law is an issue of balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of the community.
“The community wants to control drug use but there are some individuals that want to use drugs, so we have to find some sort of balance between the two.
“The cannabis laws don’t work, they don’t control the use of cannabis, they don’t stop young people using cannabis, and they don’t do anything to improve the health of cannabis users.”
The documentary also focuses on research showing alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than cannabis.
“Cannabis is not as bad as those drugs, so while there are problems associated with cannabis, they’re not as bad.
“That doesn’t make cannabis better, it just means it’s not as bad as those drugs.”
The two scientific studies from the Netherlands and UK ranked illicit drugs according to the harm they do to individual and society.
Both studies ranked cannabis less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.
Savage says the documentary combines his “bigger picture view” with the heavily pro-cannabis stance of Arik Reiss, whom he met at West Auckland cannabis club, The Daktory.
The club has been operating for two and a half years and Savage describes it as an “activist centre where you can go and use cannabis and be part of the cannabis movement”.
Up until the trial of Dakta Green the club was selling cannabis too, but that stopped after the club’s founder was sentenced to eight months jail on charges relating to possession, supply and sale of cannabis.
Despite being an advocate for the cannabis club model, the filmmaker says The Daktory does have problems.
“I think a lot of people at the club smoke a lot of cannabis and far too much cannabis, and there’s not enough emphasis at the club on moderation, on dealing with people’s addiction.”
“They make an effort to do it but I think they could have done a lot more in terms of addressing some of the excessive use issues that were there.”
He says he did not know people at the club well enough to know if any of them suffer cannabis-induced psychosis or long term problems associated with abuse.
“While cannabis is not the demon weed, it’s still a problematic drug.”
However cannabis movement advocates are caught between a rock and a hard place if they have a problem with excessive use or abuse he says.
“If you admit you have a problem with cannabis then you admit that cannabis is a problematic drug, and if you’re trying to advocate to change the laws you get caught up in a situation where you’re either for or against - that’s really damaging to cannabis users.”
The former teacher of film and media studies says evidence shows legal status of cannabis does not affect the rate at which people use and he agrees with Law Commission recommendations to lessen penalties for personal users.
The Law Commission review of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 was tabled in Parliament on May 3 and recommended existing legislation be replaced with a new Act administered by the Ministry of Health
“We need to recognise that the abuse of drugs is both a health and a criminal public policy problem,” said Law Commission president, Justice Grant Hammond.
He says while the law must continue to impose heavy penalties on growers and sellers, there are compelling arguments for adopting a more holistic approach to individual drug offending, particularly when it is driven by addiction.
Part of the proposal is a cautioning scheme for all personal possession and use offences that come to police attention.
This is designed to remove minor drug offenders from the criminal justice system and provide greater opportunities for those in need of treatment.
“Because of UN conventions that we’ve signed as a country, we are not allowed to legalise cannabis. But we can change the law to lessen penalties,” says Savage.
Inside NZ:High Time? airs tonight at 8.30pm on TV3 and On Demand.
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