SMITH PUSHES ANTI CANNABIS PETITION

National's Education Spokesman Nick Smith paid a flying visit to Palmerston
North on Thursday afternoon to promote a petition opposing the
decriminalisation of cannabis.

The Government has agreed the matter of the decriminalisation of cannabis
should be reviewed by the health select committee, possibly this year. Dr
Smith visited both Queen Elizabeth College and Freyberg High School
yesterday to speak to the acting principals about the petition.

The petition was organised by the School Trustees Association and has the
support of the National Party who are promoting it.

It asks the Government to abandon any move to decriminalise cannabis because
of the effects on young people's educational achievement.

The petition asks that the Government instead concentrate on increasing the
effectiveness of education programmes, treatment for users and support for
families.

Dr Smith said he was visiting both Queen Elizabeth College and Freyberg High
School because the principals and boards of trustees had a good reputation
for keeping their schools drug free.

However, he said the recent discussion about decriminalisation was causing
confusion in young people with some thinking cannabis was already
decriminalised.

This confusion was making the jobs of the principals, teachers, and trustees
at schools like Queen Elizabeth College and Freyberg High School more
difficult, he said.

Dr Smith said that the petition aimed to get support from three different
sectors of the community.

He said the first sector was the Boards of Trustees as since Tomorrows
Schools in 1989 schools were now businesses and, with board approval, the
principal or chairperson could now sign a petition on behalf of the board.

It was also hoped that teachers at schools would get behind the petition and
sign it if it was placed in the staff room.

Dr Smith said the third section was the parents as it was hoped that schools
would distribute the petition to parents for them to sign.

He said the main objective of the petition was to galvanise every community
in New Zealand and stop decriminalisation in it's tracks.

"The evidence overwhelmingly shows that cannabis destroys young people's
vitality, ambition and capacity to learn. With the Greens holding the
balance of power in parliament, our worry is that cannabis decriminalisation
will become a negotiating chip in a political game in which young people
will be the losers".