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Regional | Crime

Drop in cannabis convictions fuels calls for law reform

In the Northland region, where a fall in cannabis convictions by over 60% in the past six years has fuelled news calls for action on drug law reform.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation’s Executive Director Ross Bell says, “That's not because drug use has suddenly dropped.  It’s because police are taking a much more grown up attitude to how they should enforce New Zealand's drug law.  We know that convictions are a real problem for a lot of people and seeing fewer convictions I think is an absolutely a good thing.”

The Taitokerau Community Law Office is looking at the possibility of an iwi justice panel as a diversion from the criminal justice system.

Taitokerau Community Law ‘s Legal Advisor Dr Carol Peters says, “From our perspective at Taitokerau Community Law it’s important that people don't have convictions because it effects their lives yknow so for small things really we should be treating marijuana like we treat alcohol in terms of usage.  We have to look at other ways of that people are kept safe.”

Bell says, “Fundamentally we know that Māori miss out on any of these alternatives.  That Māori aren't always getting pre-charge warnings so if you look at the prison population right now half of the prison population are Māori 40% of them are in there for drug crime and that is not the same for non-Māori.”

In its own polling, the Drug Foundation found high public support for drug reform with the need for more focus on treating the matter as a health issue. But despite the decrease in convictions, the foundation says major inequalities remain in how the law is being applied in practice.

“So we do have the police commissioner talked about unconscious bias.  I think many of us would call it institutional racism. And that institutional racism is backed up thru our drug law. And one way that we can address racism in our criminal justice system is to change our drug law,” says Bell.

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