CANNABIS CHANGE STILL UP IN AIR

The next Parliament could be the first to grapple with the controversial
issue of cannabis law reform but even with a strong push from the Green
Party it is unclear whether MPs are ready for liberalisation.

Green MP Nandor Tanczos, a strong advocate of decriminalisation who has
been open about his own use of the drug, wants the issue high on the
parliamentary agenda. He says he hopes Labour will introduce a Government
bill after the election.

"If the Government won't do that then we'll look at what options are
available to us.

"What we'll be looking for this next term is actual legislative change.
We've had enough talk."

Any decriminalisation of the cannabis laws would be a conscience vote for
MPs, meaning they vote according to personal belief rather than along party
lines.

Parliament's health select committee investigated cannabis law reform last
term but did not report back to the House before it rose for the election.

This sparked criticism from reform advocates that it had buried the issue.

Mr Tanczos says there is no guarantee the new health select committee will
consider the issue and 75 per cent of submissions to the previous select
committee favoured reform.

But Prime Minister Helen Clark is not promising action. Instead she wants
more talk and says the Greens should wait for a report from the next committee.

Helen Clark says the change to the law in Britain, where possession is no
longer automatically a criminal offence, needs to be considered.

"A lot of parents worry about their kids being dogged or stigmatised with a
heavy criminal penalty for using cannabis when really the key issue we want
to get across is a public health message."

Helen Clark says she does not support legalisation. "What I have said is
that approaches around partial decriminalisation, partial prohibition, are
well worth looking at."

And despite an admission this week by senior Labour MP Steve Maharey that
he once inhaled, he also opposes making the drug legal.

"It was everywhere - all around you. But I didn't enjoy it and it didn't
become a habit. I think making it legal would be a big mistake," Mr Maharey
told a Massey University forum in Palmerston North.

His admission sparked a chain reaction. Act's Rangitikei candidate, John
Waugh, also admitted to "doing drugs" when he was young but said he was
vehemently opposed to any liberalisation of the law, and Rangitikei
National MP Simon Power said he had smoked a joint "once, when I was at
university", about 12 years ago. But he said he also was "dead against"
marijuana law reform.