Hi Brian, thanks for your better stories on cannabis. (see 

Better than the Police who continue to be confounded by this issue...  I was at the Health Select Committee meeting when Assoc Commish. Holyoak told the MP's that Police would have no objection to 'decriminalisation' (what ever he meant by that).

Subsequently, I had my hand all over the "declassification"  or Class D "Restricted Substances Regulations 2008" that became law the day John Key became Prime Minister.  I was the guy who told the committee HOW to make the crucial change. By Order in Council.   Which is what happened. (despite United Future doing everything it could to stop it)   As the law was being gazetted during the 2008 election it went unnoticed.

Potential harm of commonly used drugs based on a study by David Nutt, 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No political pundit, journalist, commentator or morally afflicted MP spoke against the gazetting or the adoption of  Assoc Health Minister, Hon Jim Anderton's (actually it was Helen Clark's 'partial prohibition') before or AFTER. It became law. The schema was acknowledged as being 'World Class' by the likes of Professor David Nutt and others.  It was later when Dunne's PSA became law, deleting Class D,  that Dunne used that 'accreditation' as if it was his own, and of his initiative. It was not. PSA was destined to fail, not because of lack of political will,  rather it was never a harm reduction law in  the first place.   Harm reduction required an ALL drug policy response... PSA was a perverse 'drug by drug' reversal of that best practice  schema (see National Drug Policy circa 1996).  If you want to know more on this you can  ph me on 021823647 

I'll leave you with this little homily.... if cannabis was substituted where ever alcohol or tobacco was used it would add, on average, 24 years to an individual 'consumer of legals'  life expectancy.   Even if this estimate is out by a factor of ten.... And there is good reason to believe it is not, cannabis seen in this light is 'medical use'.  That is why the wording of the explanatory note in the restricted substances regulation was quite specific about.'psychoactive recreational use' and harms being relative, rather than absent. And that was what was "world first'.. Not Dunne's 'taking the credit' where it wasn't due.   

Regards,

Blair Anderson

Another MildGreen Initiative,  Christchurch, NZ

03 3894065