Labour MP promotes visit by legal-drugs advocate

By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter

Labour MP Tim Barnett is helping promote the visit of an American drug reform advocate who believes in legalising all drugs - including P - as part of the way to fight them.

Clifford Thornton's visit to New Zealand is being assisted by the Mild Greens group, but both Mr Barnett and the Green Party are helping promote it.

In a notice to media on Mr Barnett's letterhead, Mr Thornton is described as America's foremost "anti-drug war African American activist". He advocates legalisation and "medicalisation" of drugs, meaning they are administered by health professionals.

Mr Thornton heads drug reform body Efficacy and speaks around the world on how the war on drugs harms people, especially the poor.

His mother died of a heroin overdose when he was 18 and although he initially wanted tougher laws and more police, the notice said he now believed if heroin had been legal and supervised by doctors his mother would have lived a relatively safe and healthy life.

Mr Barnett denied helping promote the visit was flying in the face of the Government's tough approach to drugs such as P.

"Every time we make a decision in areas like this we need to look at what the alternatives might be," he said.

"What people would be interested in is whether he's offering a new way forward. Labelling him as someone who supports this or that is actually not going to get people very far."

But United Future leader Peter Dunne said Mr Barnett's involvement in Mr Thornton's visit "might come as a surprise to some of his more senior colleagues".

"The Government's policy is quite clear," he said.

"They are not going to change the legal status of cannabis. There's also been a pretty strong line - which we think is probably not strong enough - on the issue of P."

Mr Barnett said he thought it important that there was more than one view on the drug law reform debate.

He said he sent a note to other MPs this week suggesting they might want to meet Mr Thornton, and he did not think his assistance was at variance with the Government's approach to drugs.

Blair Anderson of the Mild Greens organisation said that Mr Thornton was an advocate for "legalisation, decriminalisation and medicalisation".

A Green Party spokesman said that the party, while helping promote Mr Thornton's visit, did not bring him to New Zealand.

He said that the Greens had no official association with the Mild Greens.