Posted inCampaign Events Press releases

Cannabis referendum: Bring it on, says NORML

Cannabis campaigners have welcomed news today the Government is considering bringing forward the binding referendum on legalising cannabis to next year, 2019, rather than during the 2020 general election.  "Bring it on," said Chris Fowlie, president of NORML New Zealand Inc. "A solid majority of New Zealand adults support law reform and people are telling us they don't want to wait any longer." "The government needs to keep up…
Posted inAbout cannabis Law Reform Research

Study: No Increase In Problematic Cannabis Use By Young People Following Changes In Marijuana’s Legal Status

by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. Yet another study has once again affirmed that the regulation of marijuana for medical or recreational purposes is not associated with increases in problematic cannabis use by young people. Writing in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, federal investigators from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration evaluated marijuana use rates among young people (ages 12 to…
Green Party new cannabis policy
Posted inLaw Reform Medicinal Use of Cannabis

Green Party new cannabis policy

The Green Party has updated it's drugs policy: they want cannabis to be made legal for adults over 18, with home growing allowed and legal markets to be investigated "to determine the best model for New Zealand". Patients and caregivers would be allowed to use and cultivate cannabis medicinally. It's a good start - certainly the best policy in parliament. The next general election must be held in 2017.…
Druglawed filmmaker Arik Reiss visits Uruguay – Part 2
Posted inAbout cannabis Law Reform Medicinal Use of Cannabis

Druglawed filmmaker Arik Reiss visits Uruguay – Part 2

NORML is proud to sponsor the "Druglawed" documentary series. At the start of 2016, Druglawed director Arik Reiss traveled from New Zealand to Uruguay to obtain footage for the next installment of Druglawed, specifically to interview the former President José Mujica, who advocated for the legalisation of cannabis. In 2013 Mujica signed these reforms into law, making Uruguay the first country in the world with a legal cannabis market. The new laws…
Labour will legalise medicinal cannabis “in first 100 days”, open to wider decriminalisation
Posted inFor Media & Students Law Reform Medicinal Use of Cannabis

Labour will legalise medicinal cannabis “in first 100 days”, open to wider decriminalisation

The New Zealand Labour Party have confirmed they will make medicinal cannabis legal within their "first 100 days" of forming a government, and although less supportive than the Green Party of "broader" reforms they have not ruled anything out. Leader Andrew Little says he wants to see more information about the impact of reforms, so make sure you send him some! Watch video of Andrew Little on RNZ's Morning…
Posted inEvents Press releases

2014 Law Reform Conference and NORML AGM – Sat 14 June in Wellington

NORML NZ Conference and AGM Saturday 14 June 2014, 9:30am to 5pm Hotel Mercure, 345 The Terrace, Wellington. Join us for our annual cannabis law reform conference - with cannabis reforms in Colorado, Washington and Uruguay, as well as review of the UN drug treaties, and NZ's ongoing debate about regulating synthetic cannabis substitutes (and why not the real thing?), we are now closer than ever before. Don't stand…
Posted inFor Media & Students Law Reform Press releases

Complete rethink needed of all drug laws

NORML has advised the Ministry of Health a complete rethink is needed of all drug control laws and policies. In it's submission to the discussion document on the New National Drug Policy, New Zealand's longest running cannabis law reform group said the lack of any willingness to look at first principles, and the missed opportunity to place the NDP in a world context, is especially sad given that NZ…
Posted inLaw Reform Press releases

First legal pot sales in Colorado – and the sky did not fall. Here’s why it’s just a matter of time before pot becomes legal everywhere.

The benefits, and common sense, point to cannabis prohibition becoming a thing of the past. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Yellowj January 2, 2014  | Tens of thousands of people throughout the nation today will buy cannabis. The difference is that in Colorado, these transactions will be legal, regulated and taxed. The product will be of known quality and potency, and the cannabis seller will not be a blackmarket dealer, but rather…
Posted inLaw Reform Medicinal Use of Cannabis Press releases

Review of the National Drug Policy – submissions close 28 Feb 2014

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…
Posted inLaw Reform Press releases

Uruguay first nation in modern history to regulate the licensed production and sale of cannabis

Members of the Uruguay Senate late today approved legislation authorizing for the licensed production and retail sale of cannabis to all citizens age 18 and older. Members of Uruguay’s House had previously approved the measure months earlier. The bill now goes to President José Mujica, who intends to sign the measure into law in the coming days. Uruguay will be the first nation in modern history to regulate the…
Posted inLaw Reform Research

NORML’s Chris Fowlie talks legalisation in Colorado and how it might apply to NZ, with Newstalk’s Jack Tame

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/player/ondemand/948590092-world-cannabis-week-to-take-over-colorado World Cannabis Week to take over Colorado New Zealander Chris Fowlie researches cannabis use and cultivation, and he talks to Jack Tame in Colorado, where the drug is legal and celebrating that this weekend. Click to listen in external player or download the mp3 here
Craccum: Drug Diaries – Moving It Forward, An Interview with Chris Fowlie
Posted inLaw Reform

Craccum: Drug Diaries – Moving It Forward, An Interview with Chris Fowlie

This interview with NORML president Chris Fowlie appeared in Craccum, the University of Auckland student's magazine, issue 04, 2013. Drug Diaries – Moving It Forward, An Interview with Chris Fowlie Craccum, Issue 04 2013 I sit in a small shop back room. A flowerless vase with dirty green water squats conspicuously in the corner. Music posters from the likes of Ragga Muffin and Katchafire litter the walls. The shelves…
Posted inMedicinal Use of Cannabis Press releases

Medical cannabis laws associated with fewer suicides

"Policymakers weighing the pros and cons of legalization should consider... that (these) laws may lead to fewer suicides among young adult males" New Zealand has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world - especially for young males. We also have the highest rate of cannabis arrests in the world, with police spending 330,000 hours per year chasing pot heads. New research has shown that in the…
Posted inLaw Reform Medicinal Use of Cannabis

Medical Cannabis Laws Have No Discernable Adverse Impact On Adolescents’ Pot Use

by Paul Armentano, US NORML Deputy Director The enactment of state laws allowing for the limited legal use of cannabis by qualified patients has little to no causal effect on broader marijuana use, according to data published online in the journal Annals of Epidemiology. Investigators at McGill University in Montreal obtained state-level estimates of marijuana use from the 2002 through 2009 US National Survey on Drug Use and Health.…
Posted inAbout cannabis Drug Testing Press releases

NZ’s 540,000 marijuana users “too many to arrest”

A new Horizon Poll has found New Zealand has 540,000 marijuana users including over 70,000 who use it every day. NORML says this is more evidence in support of it's campaign theme of "too many smokers to arrest". "New Zealand has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in the world, and despite decades of busting people we certainly the highest teenage use rate," said NORML spokesperson Chris Fowlie.…
Posted inLaw Reform Press releases

Canada’s Liberal Party votes to legalise

Canada's Liberal Party, the country's oldest registered political party, has overwhelmingly adopted a policy of supporting the regulation and taxation of cannabis commerce, something New Zealand's conservative government should also consider. The Liberals have often been the governing party in Canada, and have previously attempted several times to introduce legislation to legalise, regulate and tax their multi-billion dollar cannabis trade. At their latest annual conference the Liberals voted by…