THE JOINT DEBATE

It's been smoked by students, artists, musicians and even a US president
(though he didn't inhale). Now a high-powered group of government advisers
says cannabis should be legalised. Do you agree?

Yes, says Dr David Hadorn, health policy advisor:

Parents, how do you get your kids to eat green beans at tea-time? Simple:
just tell them they can't have any.

Every parent knows the best way to make something attractive to kids is to
forbid it. That's why cannabis prohibition laws aren't working and will
never work.

By making cannabis illegal we make it more glamourous, which increases its
use by young people. And we make matters worse by telling fantastic tales,
such as "smoking cannabis is like sticking a knitting needle up your nose
into your brain and twirling it around." [A famous Tom Scott aphorism.]

This is irresistible stuff for kids. ("Man, I have got to try that!")

For the sake of argument, let's assume that all the bad stuff claimed by
the anti-cannabis campaigners is true. Let's assume cannabis is addictive
(like alcohol and tobacco), causes illness, or whatever.

But remember that, despite warnings, cannabis is popular, with roughly half
of all young adults aged 18 to 30. And don't forget cannabis grows like a
weed.

It would take scorched-earth napalm tactics to rid New Zealand of cannabis.

So trying to ban cannabis is like trying to ban sex. It can't be done and
anyway too many people are doing it. Cannabis is already here, in a big
way, and it's here to stay. We might as well grow up and admit it.

Regulating it in the same way as alcohol and tobacco could bring in around
$50 million per year in taxes. That money could be used for effective drug
education and treatment programmes with a lot left over for other things.

And that's on top of the $18 million spent each year by police trying to
save people from what is at worst a bad habit.

Let's get real about cannabis. What we're doing now is backfiring. There's
got to be a better way.

No: says Tom Scott, co-author of the Great Brain Robbery.

Smoking cannabis lowers intelligence, impairs memory and is linked to
mental illness. If you decriminalise it more people will smoke it and all
the associated problems will go up as well.

Leslie Parr, the man who murdered his girlfriend in Wellington by
decapitating her, and we found guilty by reason of insanity, was a heavy
cannabis user.

I'm not saying it was the cannabis that caused it but his family believes
that it played a role in his emotional disintegration.

In the Raurimu massacre, Stephen Anderson took himself off his
schizophrenia medication and self-medicated with cannabis. David Grey in
Aramoana was a cannabis user. Martin Bryant in Tasmania was a heavy
cannabis user.

I wouldn't argue that anyone who takes cannabis is going to end up killing
people, but there are links to anti-social behaviour.

You don't get any intoxication cost-free. It took a long time to discover
the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and heart disease. Now
the tobacco companies are shelling out $300 billion in America.

If cannabis is legalised, which it might be, then I can imagine 15 years
down the track there will be parents suing Benson and Hedges or whoever
sells it.

I speak to a lot of high schools and the teachers tell me that they have no
doubt that on Monday morning when kids come in after a weekend of smoking
they are lethargic. Talk to any parent or any teacher whose kids have
become heavy cannabis users and it's heart-breaking.

It should be a decision for society to make after a very informed debate.

My worry is what it does to people during maturation and adolescence.

Cannabis is stored in the body and the impairment of the brain lasts a lot
longer.