Note: Headline supplied by newshawk

LEGALISE CANNABIS

WHILE NEW ZEALAND ponders the brain drain, it seems that the gangs are
doing their best to reverse this trend by not only employing chemistry
students to make methamphetamine but by recruiting chemists from overseas
too, ( ODT , 13.12.00). One can only wonder how many accountancy and law
graduates might also be employed by gangs. I believe a legalised
cannabis/hemp industry in New Zealand would not only reverse the brain
drain but also attract overseas investment.

Interestingly, the same article also puts paid to the argument that gangs
would resort to pushing harder drugs if cannabis was legalised. Evidently,
it appears that someone forgot to tell the gangs about the arrangement. I
wonder what influence the recent introduction of energy drinks might have
had on the increased demand for speed.

More disturbing, however, was the report on police forfeitures of
criminals' property ( ODT , 29.12.00) often as a result of cannabis
"crime". Let's hope that New Zealand does not go the way of the United
States where asset forfeiture is now a business worth billions of dollars a
year. One can only wonder as to what incentive there is for governments to
control crime when they benefit from it.

Barry White
Normanby