SOFTER LAW WON'T END DRUG ABUSE - EXPERT

Decriminalising cannabis will not guarantee an end to the black market in
the drug nor a drop in abuse and dependency, a Wellington public policy
expert says.

Karen Baehler, a public policy lecturer and researcher at Victoria
University's school of business and public management, says cannabis buyers
would still rely on criminal sources, and dependency could increase unless
law changes were accompanied by more resources to combat abuse.

Writing in NZ Institute of Public Administration journal Public Sector, Dr
Baehler says MPs should have clear goals before changing drugs laws, such
as saving money by reducing police time and resources spent arresting and
prosecuting users.

Another valid goal would be to respond to changing public attitudes toward
cannabis use, though any law changes should not be based solely on public
opinion.

Dr Baehler told The Dominion that two of the main benefits advanced by
proponents of changing the legal status of cannabis - ending the black
market and associated crime and reducing abuse - were unlikely to come
about simply because of a law change.

"What you don't accomplish is a solution to either of the major social
problems associated with cannabis," she said.

"It's not at all clear from the current evidence that we have done enough
to try and fund treatment programmes for people who need it, and if it is
illegal for individuals to grow their own cannabis or for commercial
growers to supply it then the only place you are going to get it is on the
street."

Even if cultivating cannabis was made legal, few users were likely to grow
their own in the same way that few beer drinker brewed their own, she said.

Parliament's health select committee chairwoman, Judy Keal, announced last
week an inquiry into cannabis and the health issues associated with its
present status. The inquiry is seen as a first step toward
decriminalisation of the drug, possibly to make possession a ticketing
offence, like speeding.

A review of the law is scheduled for this term of Parliament.