Letter: A health issue not a crime

Last updated 11:31 22/11/2009

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OPINION: Part of the magic of the Harry Potter books lies in the ingestion of strange substances. And who knows what Gandalf and the hobbits were smoking in Tolkien's Rings saga when they used "pipe weed".

After all, tobacco was brought to Europe from America only in Elizabethan times.

If Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has used cannabis, as claimed by a British newspaper, he has only done what 62 per cent of young New Zealanders have done by the time they reach 21.

It would be astounding if this young man hadn't experimented by now with more than one prohibited substance. More honesty from Radcliffe and less media hysteria would help us all reach a sensible, workable drug policy to replace our current prohibition regime.

It never worked from the start.

Drug use should be a health issue, not a crime. Portugal decriminalised the use of all drugs in 2001; we could learn from its experience.

Surely problem-users need treatment, not fines or jail terms?

PHIL SAXBY

President, NORML NZ

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