TANCZOS AND ANDERTON TAKE POT SHOTS OVER CANNABIS

As MPs in Parliament debated whether to stub out cigarette smoking, Green
MP Nandor Tanczos and Progressive leader Jim Anderton traded pot-shots of a
different kind.

About 150 people turned up at the Johnsonville Community Centre in
Wellington last night to hear the pair debate whether cannabis should be
decriminalised.

Mr Tanczos, a Rastafarian who has said he smokes cannabis for religious
reasons, said personal use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis by adults
should not be a criminal offence. His remark was greeted with thin applause
and a sole cheer from the audience, which contained a cross-section of the
community.

He went on to give a history of cannabis use and pointed out that it was
first imported to New Zealand by a nun, mother Mary Aubert.

Law reform was not "radical or far out", he said, citing Canada as an
example where instant fines for possession of small amounts of cannabis
were given out like "parking tickets".

Mr Tanczos said law reform would take power away from gangs which control
the drug trade because users could grow their own.

Youth and mental health workers, a principal and parents asked how the MP
could justify his stance given the effects the drug had on some children
and teenagers but Mr Tanczos said the problems they talked about proved the
law did not work.

Fellow debater Mr Anderton, who opposes decriminalisation, quoted reports
that listed the health dangers of cannabis.

"So why would we say it's okay to let it rip, mate?"

The Green Party was worried about fizzy drinks, fast food and breakfast
cereal but it defied logic by wanting a drug decriminalised, he said.

But Mr Tanczos fired back, saying they were not asking for coco-pops to be
banned but wanted adults to be able to make informed choices, which also
applied to cannabis.

Mr Anderton, who confessed to being a "wowser" in his youth and not
touching alcohol until his 30s, said the only answer to New Zealand's
cannabis problem was to stop supply and focus on education and treatment.

Toward the end of the debate, a man said he had smoked a cannabis cigarette
outside the hall during the meeting and asked Mr Anderton if that made him
a criminal. He was a lawbreaker and a poor example but not necessarily a
criminal, Mr Anderton replied.

Mr Tanczos originally challenged United Future leader Peter Dunne to debate
the issue in the Ohariu-Belmont electorate.

Debate chairman Helene Ritchie said Mr Dunne had advised he had "prior
commitments" and could not attend.