CABINET RULES OUT LEGALISING CANNABIS

THE Government has ruled out decriminalising cannabis, saying that
making the drug legal would send confusing messages to young people.

Parliament's health select committee conducted an inquiry last year
into the mental health effects of cannabis and recommended that the
Government review the legal status of the drug.

The Government's response to the committee's report, tabled in
Parliament yesterday, says it does not intend to revisit the legal
status of cannabis.

However, the Government also announced yesterday, in the first round
of its national drug policy "action plan", that it would ban drug
paraphernalia such as "bongs" and educate people about the dangers of
"scene drugs" such as Ecstasy.

Health Minister Wyatt Creech, who heads the ministerial committee on
drug policy, said drugs could be "at the heart of death, suicide,
accidents, injury, violence and family and social disruption."

He said young people needed clear and consistent messages about
drugs.

"The visibility and availability of paraphernalia, in particular pipes
and bongs, specifically for illicit drug-taking, have the potential to
send conflicting messages to young people regarding the
appropriateness or safety of drug-taking," Mr Creech said.

The Government planned to ban the importation of pipes and utensils
for the use of administering controlled drugs.

A gazette notice on the ban was being drafted by the Health Ministry,
and a transition period would allow importers and sellers to clear
stocks already in New Zealand.

The ban would come into effect by 2000 at the latest, and possession
of drug paraphernalia would be penalised by a maximum three months'
jail, a $1500 fine or both.

The ministry will also produce guidelines for safer dance parties,
spurred in part by the Ecstasy-related death of a woman at an
Auckland dance club. The guidelines would tell people how to hold
safer dance parties, the dangers of "scene drugs" such as Ecstasy and
amphetamines, and how to prevent the potential harm.

The guidelines would be accompanied by information for people
attending dance parties or "rave events".

The Government's "action plan" on drugs also includes: - Drug
research, particularly into the impact of cannabis on Maori
communities. - Guidelines on drug education. - A new police
drug-control strategy.- Identifying gaps and overlaps in drug and
alcohol treatment. - Intelligence-gathering on inappropriate
prescription of drugs by doctors, with a pilot scheme to start in
Christchurch in September. - Review of classification of drugs,
including making Ecstasy a class A drug.

Health select committee chairman Brian Neeson said he was not
disappointed that the Government had not reviewed the legal status of
cannabis.

"If the Government doesn't feel it is time to look at that, fine," Mr
Neeson said.

However, he said, present cannabis laws were not working, and cannabis
use was increasing.

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley has said that decriminalising cannabis
would signal the Government was "soft" on drugs, but Police Minister
Clem Simich has said he supported decriminalisation.