This significant shift from the US following its history of waging a war on drugs has led to calls from the New Zealand Drug Foundation for the Government to follow this lead and decriminalise marijuana possession.
"A majority of New Zealanders support decriminalisation," Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm tells the Front Page podcast.
These comments come after the 2020 referendum, which saw New Zealanders vote against the legalisation of recreational cannabis in Aotearoa.
While legalisation was a step too far for voters, Helm stresses that decriminalisation is fundamentally about ensuring that people aren't charged for possessing cannabis.
"From polling, we know that more than 80 per cent of New Zealanders think it's a waste of time and police resources to be chasing down cannabis convictions. And indeed it is. We would love to see that money put into either addressing more serious crime or ideally into the treatment and support of harm reduction services."
The other problem with cannabis policing is that it has a history of targeting certain racial and social groups.
"A disproportionate number of people criminalised for cannabis are Māori in New Zealand," she says.
The new discretionary policy that allows police to decide whether to put someone forward for prosecution in cannabis-related offences has reduced the overall number of convictions, but Māori continue to be disproportionately affected.
The Drug Foundation has called for an evidence-based approach to cannabis.
"The evidence is that convictions do nothing to deter use. They just add harm to people who are more likely to be experiencing other harms. If you are trying to address the cannabis harms, then convicting people isn't helping."
She says that the resources currently put into policing could be better used on treatment and harm reduction advice.
In the year 2021, more than 2,500 New Zealanders were convicted of cannabis crimes – more than half of which were related to possession.
"Those New Zealanders' lives have been quite significantly damaged by that," says Helm, pointing out that a conviction can affect the ability of someone to secure a job or even travel.
"My hope is that we do the right thing by New Zealanders and rewrite our drug laws, so they focus on a health-based approach."
However, the challenge lies in finding the political will to make that happen.
"It's become a weaponised issue, and we are caught in the crossfire between the main parties, who use this issue to throw pot shots [at each other]. We really need to disarm the issue. And do what's right in the meantime, because New Zealanders are falling through the cracks."
• The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am.
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