Mike Hosking: Winston Peters the voice of reason in a Government soft on drugs

COMMENT:

Winston Peters as the voice of reason - are you used to it yet?

He got the Capital Gains Tax killed, he's holding up the Emissions Trading Scheme for farmers - and now he's come to the rescue of what I would imagine are most parents in this country, who look on aghast at the madness of people like the ever deluded, earnest, hopelessly woke, and out of touch Green MP Chloe Swarbrick who wants drugs tested at music festivals.

Sadly we can add to that list Police Minister Stuart Nash, who as a parent should know better. This Government is loose on drugs - and left unchecked lord knows how far they would go.

So it is with some relief and thanks that we can look to New Zealand First who are, to this point anyway, holding the line.

What Labour represents on drugs is an example of the attitude that prevails on so many of today's ills: from obesity, to salt, sugar, exercise, booze, tobacco and vaping.

It's an attitude of defeat, a white flag mentality whereby we go 'oh well, it's all a bit hard. We asked politely, we ran the obligatory campaign, it didn't work so let's acquiesce'.

Measles has been the same. They keep saying we need more people vaccinated, while at the same time knowing there aren't enough people vaccinated. And also at the same time watching the number of people getting measles going up, at the same time as wondering how come we don't have enough vaccinations available.

None of it's driven with a plan, or a determination to succeed. So we end up embarrassed with the mess we currently have.

Back to the drugs, the woke argument is 'they're going to take them anyway, so they may as well know what they're taking'. That is the mentality of complete surrender.

It's the same mentality that supplies needles to drug addicts to make sure they use clean ones. Why don't we just decriminalise drugs all together and the government supply them, so they're nice, high quality with no horse tranquilliser in them? Just how far do you want the madness to go?

Surely the irony of the mixed messages can't be missed. How much time energy and money does the Government, any government, spend on our health, leading and living healthy lifestyles? And yet now they've dropped vaping and they're peddling pills at festivals.

A government apart from anything else is about societal boundaries, because it is the society that picks up the bills for all the largesse.

You give kids the green light from the state that drugs are accepted and supported and they'll go nuts with them. And enough of them have already gone nuts.

Need we remind the perpetrators of this particular crime that it was them that threw $1.9 billion at mental health. Drugs and mental health go hand in hand, and yet they want more where that came from.

If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in.

* This column has been corrected to acknowledge that there is an existing needle exchange programme in NZ.