REGULATED CANNABIS MARKET NEEDED TO PROTECT CHILDREN

THE NEW Zealand Medical Association testified before a parliamentary
committee that the partial decriminalisation of cannabis would be
acceptable, providing it could be shown no increased harm would result (
ODT , 9.6.01). Decriminalisation is a step in the right direction, but it
does nothing to undermine the black market in illegal drugs. There is a big
difference between condoning cannabis use and protecting children from
drugs. The thriving black market has no age controls, making it easier for
kids to buy cannabis than beer. Although cannabis is relatively harmless
compared to most legal drugs - the plant has never been shown to cause an
overdose death - cannabis prohibition is deadly. Illegal cannabis provides
the black market contacts that introduce youth to addictive drugs like
heroin. Current drug policy is a gateway policy.

Like alcohol prohibition once did, cannabis prohibition effectively
subsidises organised crime, while failing miserably at preventing use.
Decriminalisation acknowledges the social reality of cannabis use and frees
users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records. What's really
needed is a regulated market with age controls. As counter-intuitive as it
may seem, replacing cannabis prohibition with regulation would do a better
job protecting children than the never-ending drug war.

Robert Sharpe Programme officer,

Lindesmith Centre Drug Policy Foundation, Washington DC