Category: Chris Fowlie’s Blog

Making cannabis legal could balance the budget without needing to cut thousands of jobs and crucial services.

The Government has confirmed they will “roll out” legislation this year to enable police to randomly test the saliva of drivers using inaccurate swabs that could see thousands of people…

On 95bFM’s weekly Marijuana Media show, NORML’s Chris Fowlie made a few predictions for 2024. Check the pot-cast for more! For more, check out Chris Fowlie’s Marijuana Media pot-cast on 95bFM:…

NORML's cannabis-based guide to voting in the 2023 NZ general election includes a review of political party cannabis policies and statements by their spokespeople.

While Americans convicted for possessing pot will soon be pardoned, some local politicians have already stubbed out the roach here, citing the 2020 cannabis referendum result. Yet there remains a…

As voting packs arrive in the mail, progressive voters in Auckland now face a tough choice in the contest for Mayor: should they hold their nose and vote for socially…

As long as workers are tested for drugs they may do in their own time, should politicians be tested too?

Last week, as New Zealand’s Medicinal Cannabis Scheme was labelled “unworkable” and the Ministry of Health finally confirmed a review of the scheme was imminent, I did two things that…

The effects of a new drug-driving law passed by Parliament yesterday, which ignores the science around testing for impairment, will be felt mostly by the poor and already oppressed.

For the second year of the zombie apocalypse, covid cast a long shadow over everything, the referendum left us in a hazy brain fog and the government wished cannabis would…

A bill aiming to curb impaired driving has been derailed and will now criminalise thousands of non-impaired drivers, especially cannabis users.

This weekend the Labour Party held their annual conference. It’s also one year since the announcement of the results of their cannabis referendum, in which a forgotten 48 per cent…

The Government’s medical cannabis scheme is now in full effect, but strict rules have taken away products that are used by thousands of patients, letting billionaires corner the market and…

Police have been under fire for raiding and prosecuting people using and producing medicinal cannabis products – but the blame lies squarely with politicians writing bad laws.

New Zealand will today discover if the cannabis referendum passed or not. But in either case, we should chart a new course that is more broadly supported.

During the referendum campaign, the Nopers moved over to supporting decriminalisation or other iterative steps in that direction, and we must hold them to that.

NORML's guidance for those who toke and vote, and to those who are voting Yes and want the referendum Bill to be supported in the next Parliament.

The Nope brigade is a coalition of busy bodies, wowsers and moralists that includes Family First and Bob McCroskie, a bunch of conservative small town religious leaders, owners of drug…

With no public education campaign and widespread confusion over what the referendum will do, it is perhaps unsurprising to see such volatility in opinion polls. What is perhaps more surprising…

With the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, the choice for voters could not be more stark: vote Yes and New Zealand finally gives it a go, with a model that…