Ridiculous.

Take any Friday or Saturday night in Courtenay Place and it's obvious that alcohol is the biggest drug problem we have in this country. Violence, damage, police resources, whole generations of NZers

Enjoying a quiet joint then painting, watching a movie or anything like that, does not hurt anybody. If your response is that it funds gangs, then that is a problem caused by the law. Given the chance to grow my own plant, for my own use, there is no gang connection.

Studies may show x or y symptoms from chronic use of marijuana, however any substance that is ab-used can be harmful. From water to raw potato, all dangerous when abused.

Could somebody tell me the percentage of sickness benificaries who are not working due to cannabis use? Are users funding their own habit or are they expecting the taxpayer to pay for their lifestyle?

Honestly what kind of nazi actually thinks that your average joe pot smoker deserves to go to jail for his habit?

Maybe we should ask emergency room doctors how much of a burden pot smokers are compared to legal drug takers (alcohol).

As far as i'm concerned, its just the same as smoking cigarettes and i don't honestly see any reason to make it illegal at all. Instead of wasting millions of dollars enforcing a pointless law, why not start making millions by legalizing and then taxing it like cigarettes?

It's such an oxymoron that successive governments and politicians allow/encourage tobacco and alcohol consumption / abuse (without any consumer/nutritional info anywhere on any beer/alcohol packaging - why is that now?) yet scream blue murder over some marijuana - a God made natural plant.

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

Read what other law enforcement people outside NZ have to say about the politics of marijuana. If consenting adults wish to grow and use pot in their own home for medicinal or recreational use - let them. They will be more informed and less "harmed" than recreationally using alcohol or tobacco - so why the moral outrage from politicians completely ignoring "experts"?

Decriminalize pot for personal use, or even better regulate it so the government can monitor and collect tax revenue like in California and elsewhere in the USA.

Politicians expressing moral outrage and claiming the moral high road surrounding all the issues over pot are just posturing to the electorate - instead of focusing on issues of man-made poisons such as tobacco and alcohol - where the consumer can not get any "nutritional information" on such products. Why?

200 million people worldwide are not criminals because they elect to use pot - it's a God made natural plant - get over it! Hemp can be used for much, much more than trying to get high off it and we should be exploring "green" options for it's beneficial use.

Come on NZ - don't allow ourselves to be blindsided by the political rhetoric surrounding a natural plant. If people don't like it - don't use it - but don't deny or criminalize other consenting adults because it doesn't fit with your perception of what is or is not "allowed" - when man made poisons (alcohol & tobacco) are heavily taxed to try and offset some of the social costs from these poisons. Hypercritical at the very least!

Strewth!

Drugs of choice 85pc used alcohol in the past year.

23pc used tobacco in the past year.

15pc used cannabis in the past year.

THIS SAYS IT ALL - 85% used Alcohol causes deaths everyday (domestic violence, drunk driving, murders etc)

Smoking tobbacco - 23% used tobbacco - highest killers of them all CANCER - HELLO!!!!!!

Marijuana - 15% - facts still unknown fully however will have some health issues.

But the obvious. Alcohol and Tobbacco. kill our people everyday every month, every year. and in such violent degrading ways.

the focus is on the wrong drugs.

Maoripyjama's is an addictive substance, just like cigarettes. Ban it.

Legalize Marijuana!! Woo hoo

Lets not group all illegal drugs together as Simon Power conveniently has done, Weed is not as bad as some legal drugs, we all know that, as Sir Geoff Palmer indicates there "may be a case for taking more flexible approaches to offences involving possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use". Weed isn't the social problem, the social problem is the wasted efforts & resources at control of supply & mindless, arbitrary prosecution of people getting high in the privacy of their own homes. I see the review supports use for medicinal purposes, this smacks of a tax angle. Than "man" has got to have his cut, Im suprised they haven't found a way to tax sex yet!

Does anyone else get the feeling the Government is ignoring the public AND highly paid professionals & going ahead with what ever they want to do? In a little over a year they have, ignored the tax working group, done an about face on Copenhagen, broken tax promises (GST hikes, personal income cuts etc), ignored a couple of referenda, ignored public opinion vis-a-vis deals with the Maori Party, Rushed through national standards, I could go on but you get the picture, Now Simon Power has come out & said "not a single solitary chance" he would allow any relaxation of drug laws. This statement is nothing short of a predetermined outcome therefore, a waste of the Law Commissions time & our tax dollar. Meanwhile, harmless (funny) weed smokers are villified the same as prostitutes once were. It seems as tho National are hell-bent on being a government of control allowing no input from lobbyists & public opinion. I think I know what Pita & Tariana think of this report, which will possibly result in Simon Power's words going up in smoke! Its a pity this topic is so Taboo & politicians don't tend to take the risk of publically supporting change. This is a dreadful shame. FYI I think class A dealers & users can rot in hell. Rangi.

Thats just anther cop out as they will do the rehab then go back to smoking pot as they dont have to go to prison witch is just a waste of time and money as they start smoking as soon as they get out. as for health then let them grow there own and just for them self's

Typical of the powers that be, completely disregard any recommendations that don't fit in 'their' line of thinking, never mind what the experts say!

Its a start, it doesn't go far enough though, there NEEDS to be a complete overhaul of our current outdated cannabis laws.

How many more people will be locked up and life ruined because of cannabis laws How many more people will get hooked on other drugs DUE to the prohibition, ie they end up getting offered other drugs from the tinny shop that they frequent. Why not hit the gangs where it hurts and take away their black market supplying cannabis, NZ can actually make some money from taxing it rather than spending millions of our money each year trying to prohibit it, when clearly they are not winning the 'War on the Drugs', an ideological war that will never be won!

The reasons it is illegal are completely political in the first place. Time for change!