The Ministry of Health has announced on its website that submissions are now open for the review of the National Drug Policy.
Download NORML’s submission to the New National Drug Policy here.
The previous NDP expired in 2012. NORML’s Chris Fowlie was invited to take part in a “innovation session” in June 2013 to come up with some new policy ideas that, unfortunately, had to remain within the current paradigm, but the principle of asking the leader of NORML to give them ideas shows they are on the right track and may just need some more nudging from us all.
You can point to and endorse the consensus agreements recently made in the Wellington Declaration. Together with over 80 other organisations, NORML signed up to this agreement in the hope it will end the political stalemate and allow New Zealand to move forward with sensible drug policy reforms, such as:
- making cannabis a health issue, not a crime
- allowing safe, legal, access to medicinal cannabis
- admitting there really are “too many smokers to arrest”, and ending the criminalisation and persecution of drug users
- recognising that not all drug use is harmful, and may in fact be beneficial
- basing drug policy on science and evidence rather than emotion and rhetoric
- applying the same principles found in our world-leading Psychoactive Substances Act to currently illegal low risk drugs like cannabis
Start thinking about what you want to say now. Submissions close 28 Feb 2014.
See these links for more information:
- A New National Drug Policy for New Zealand: Discussion Document
- A New National Drug Policy for New Zealand: Discussion Document (doc, 798 KB)
- Questions and answers (docx, 30 KB)
How to have your say
You can share your views by emailing ndp_discussion@moh.govt.nz or posting your feedback to the Ministry of Health at the following address:
NDP Discussion
Sector and Services Policy
Policy Business Unit
Ministry of Health
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6145