Thursday 11 February 2010

Guess we need a new Justice Minister then

Gonzo alerts us that the Law Commission recommends a softening of the drug war in New Zealand. I haven't had the chance yet to read the 400+ page document, but apparently it doesn't much matter. Here's our justice minister:
Mr Power said that while he was prepared to listen to submissions, "there's not a single, solitary chance that as long as I'm the Minister of Justice, we'll be relaxing drug laws in New Zealand".

"The Prime Minister has made the war against P and drugs a key part of his leadership and as long as I'm the Minister of Justice, we will not be relaxing drug laws."
And so I reckon we need a new Justice Minister. Or at least somebody needs to strap him down and force him to watch the third season of The Wire.

Susan was one of Colemar Brunton Roy Morgan's polled persons for a big consumer survey a couple of weeks back. The first question on the survey, unrelated to anything else, was whether she favoured marijuana legalization. I wonder who the client was for that question, what the numbers were, and whether it had anything to do either with the LC release or Power's response. I'd love to know the overall responses.

3 comments:

  1. The thing is simple possession of a dope ciggie here is already decriminalized - the police don't bother taking it to the courts because the judges consider it to be wasting their time and start getting nasty.

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  2. Hmm...I'd need to check the stats on convictions for possession...

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  3. Says the LC:
    "Possession or use offences comprised 46% of the approximately 20,000 drug offences recorded by police in 2008"

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