TANCZOS HITS BACK AT POLICE CRIME PRIORITIES

Green MP Nandor Tanczos has criticised police for investigating cannabis
offences when they are slow to respond to burglaries.

Mr Tanczos was interviewed by police last week after New Zealand First MP
Craig McNair made a complaint about his cannabis use.

Police were still looking at the legal issues, Wellington district crime
manager Detective Inspector Harry Quinn said yesterday, and further comment
was unlikely before Friday.

Mr Tanczos wants cannabis decriminalised for people aged over 18, and has
admitted using cannabis as part of his Rastafarian beliefs.

Yesterday, he said the time police took to respond to burglaries showed the
public needed to decide on the allocation of resources.

He cited figures showing Counties-Manukau police took longer than 24 hours
to respond to burglary complaints in August, compared with 15 hours in the
same month last year.

"If it takes more than 24 hours to investigate a burglary, why the hell are
police spending 280,000 sworn police hours - at a cost of $20 million -
investigating cannabis offences?"

This time and money was mostly spent investigating and arresting adults for
personal possession and use of cannabis.

Heavy police spending on policing the drug had failed to keep it out of
schools, he said.

Money saved by not investigating responsible adult drug-users could be
spent on more important things, "such as burglary, violent crime and those
who sell drugs to kids".