 | NORML Press Releases: Latest crime stats show worrying police priorities |
 The latest crime statistics released by the Police show they have put more effort into easy busts of pot smokers and less effort into hard drugs like methamphetamine (P).
Cannabis arrests were up 5.8% in the year to 30 June 2008, but arrests for "new drugs" such as meth went down 11%.
"That's a trend everyone should be concerned about," said NORML spokesperson Chris Fowlie. "Polls show the public do not support arresting and jailing people for using cannabis. Most people are more concerned with catching serious crooks, so the police should seriously reconsider their priorities."
The reason for the increased emphasis on catching non-violent and otherwise law-abiding people who choose cannabis over other more harmful drugs such as alcohol, may be the high resolution rate. Most defendants plead guilty, thereby improving the resolution rate for all crime and making the police look better.
The crime statistics show cannabis offences had a resolution rate of 92.9%, compared to 47% for all offences. "No wonder the police like busting pot smokers," said Mr Fowlie.
Although there is no evidence that law enforcement has any effect on people's decision to use drugs, New Zealand continues to have the world's highest arrest rate for cannabis.
"The one piece of good news is that the cannabis arrest rate is still down on the peak of 25,293 arrests in 1998/99, the year the Greens got into parliament and cannabis law reform got on the agenda," said Mr Fowlie.
A recent study by the World Health Organisation found that New Zealand had the highest rate of cannabis use among the 17 countries surveyed. Researchers concluded drug use "is not simply related to drug policy, since countries with stringent user-level illegal drug policies did
not have lower levels of use than countries with liberal ones ... The Netherlands, with a less
criminally punitive approach to cannabis use than the US, has experienced lower levels of use, particularly among younger adults."
Highlights from the latest crime statistics:
 Drugs - cannabis: 15,288 arrests, up 5.8%
Drugs (new drugs): 2,640 arrests, down 11.1%
Drugs (not cannabis): 1,331 arrests, down 10.7%
Total drugs: 19,259 arrests (4.5% of all recorded crime)
Cannabis: 3.58% of all recorded crime*
Personal cannabis offences: 11,591 people arrested (2.71% of all recorded crime)
The crime stats for the year ended 30 June 2008 are here: www.police.govt.nz
The Statistics NZ website lets you ask queries for more detailed statistics: www.stats.govt.nz
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