Happy 420!

Ganja, Dak, Bud, Pot, Good Good ‘erb, Nug, MJ, Reefer, Flower, Trees, Weed, Marijuana, or Cannabis Sativa. There are a lot of names for the substance that approximately 750,000 Kiwis regularly pack into their pipes, roll into their joints, vaporise, eat, and smoke.

The prohibition of cannabis in Aotearoa is a laughable failure, it is a remnant of a failed 1920’s drug-war policy based on fear, bad science, and international pressure. As with all prohibition, the prohibition of cannabis is a tool of socioeconomic oppression, disproportionately impacting minority ethnic and lower socioeconomic groups.

Just as the prohibition of alcohol led to the concentration of the product into moonshine, prohibition of cannabis has led to more potent strains and forms. Extracts, such as hashish and BHO, have emerged, as ways to further concentrate the product, making it easier to smuggle. This increasing THC potency, along with lower CBD content in modern plants, makes it easier to overindulge, leading to mental distress for some, or a ‘green out’ for others.

Just as the prohibition of alcohol led to many deaths due to methanol poisoning, the prohibition of cannabis has also led to deaths, through people substituting for more harmful drugs such as synthetic cannabinoids, alcohol, and opiates. Thanks to crime and the lack of quality control in the unregulated market prohibition has been the cause of death and serious harm for many. Prohibition has pulled innocent people into the prison system, and subsequently into violent criminal networks, for the simple act of administering a substance to their body. This has caused an increase in drug related crime which has led to further harm and death in our communities.

But you can get it from the doctors! On the first of April 2020 medicinal cannabis became legal in NZ, so while some people have a piece of paper saying they're allowed to take this drug, others (generally minority ethnic and lower socioeconomic groups) are still locked away in a cage for using this drug medicinally, often because they can't spare the time and expense to get a prescription.

In October 2020, a referendum was held to determine the views of the public on a proposed legalised recreational cannabis market in Aotearoa. Whilst this referendum was non-binding, its narrow defeat of 50.7% against marked the end of the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill and has consistently been used as an argument to shut down debate ever since. SSDP Aotearoa fully supported the proposed legalisation of recreational cannabis as this legislation put reducing harm at the forefront of its aims.

As with all illicit drugs, regulation, not prohibition, is the optimum way to reduce cannabis related harm in our communities. Policing of our drug laws continues to disproportionately affect Maori and Pasifika groups and the easier access of medicinal, and legal regulation of recreational, cannabis are important political changes that are required to reduce the racism and harm associated with our current cannabis policy.

SSDP Aotearoa would like to wish all cannabis activists, tokers, stoners, cannabis connoisseurs, and casual consumers a happy, hazy 420. To those fighting the good fight for legalisation; good luck, we are with you!