TANCZOS PLOTS RISE IN DOPE USE

Cannabis use increased by nearly 10 per cent under the National government,
Green MP Nandor Tanczos said yesterday.

National MP Nick Smith, who had ridiculed Government plans to reduce
cannabis use, should "pull his head in", he said.

"His call to stop a review of cannabis laws is simply an attempt to hide the
clear failure of his own government in this area," Mr Tanczos said.

This week Dr Smith dismissed Health Minister Annette King's aim to halve
cannabis use by 2005 as "laughable", saying it would never happen while
decriminalisation was on the Government's agenda.

"Schools are already reporting higher cannabis use arising from the mixed
signals about the seriousness of cannabis," he said, referring to the
Government's intention to review cannabis laws.

But Mr Tanczos said figures from the Alcohol and Public Health Research Unit
showed that in 1990, 43 per cent of people admitted to having used cannabis.

"By 1998, that group had become a majority at 52 per cent," he said.