Letter to the Editor, Tuesday August 11, 2015

Repugnant folly

I draw comparisons between council awarding its waste minimisation contract to Northland Waste and Kelly van Gaalen's conviction and sentencing on cannabis charges.

Clean Stream's predicament highlights local government tender processes, presumably decided by locals, devoid of the important consideration 'local'. Sadly, this isn't new to government in general, or FNDC in particular. Transfield's involvement in the Far North's infrastructure is another glaring example.

Kelly van Gaalen's plight speaks volumes about the utter absurdity of cannabis law in New Zealand. How can we feel anything but shame in continuing to police and prosecute these laws?

Consider, if you will, the extraordinary possibility this country might legalise voluntary euthanasia before it sensibly reforms cannabis law.

This repugnant folly is obvious in perceived similarities between alcohol and marijuana, promulgated even in television sponsorship and advertising. On Freeview, the alcohol-sponsored Cricket World Cup final was liberally sprinkled with 'druggie driving' ads. Only Shane Warne's final, idiotic five out of six questions returned the focus where it belonged. It was a cricket-fest slightly ahead of a booze-fest.

The frequency of drug versus drink driving 'messages' is out of all proportion with the damage each causes. Talk alcohol and we are talking damage BIG TIME!

Put simply, alcohol's myriad, demonstrable and socially pervasive dangers are largely the result of it being legal, while marijuana's relatively few perils are almost exclusively the result of it being illegal or criminalised.

I'd dearly love to say, "If ever there was a case to incite a review of cannabis law in New Zealand it is this one," except I know there are hundreds and thousands more very like it. What the heck does it take?

Tenders awarded and cannabis punished, both issues speak above all else about processes and laws where discernment, flexibility and distinction are entirely absent. Law sans wisdom does not equal justice. I'm not in the least surprised Judge McDonald was "troubled" by the sentencing. One should be troubled upholding unjust laws.

One should equally be troubled by the existence of man-made laws abhorrent to natural ethics. Such laws "testify against our times and their measure of rational insight" (Frank E Warner, Future of Man, 1944).

PARTISANZAddress Supplied