Posted inLaw Reform Press releases
Crappy Birthday, MoDA! 50 years of misuse of drugs laws
Do you know the racist origins of New Zealand's drug laws? The 1901 Opium Prohibition Act, banned use only by Chinese people, and Aotearoa’s first alcohol law banned use only by Maori. Such misuse of drugs laws continues to this day, with the law applied unfairly, unevenly, and with no regard to actually helping those the law claims to protect. The 1972-3 Blake Palmer Committee which reviewed the previous…