Greener grass on the other side?
Since 572 people have been arrested in a recent drug operation, I thought it’d be about time to discuss a bit on drugs in New Zealand. Much more interesting than the fact that over 130,000 cannabis plants and 80 kg of dried cannabis were seized and/or destroyed in the course of the operation, are people’s comments in social media on the news.
As a matter of fact, the topic seems to draw a lot more interest (328 likes and 181 comments on facebook so far) than the latest news on rugby (80 likes and 37 comments; http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11642969) or even politics (202 likes, 45 comments; http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3objectid=11643495).
Apparently, many Kiwis tend to be weed-friendly, thinking other drugs such as “P” (metamphetamine — see http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/361253/How-NZ-fell-prey-to-the-demon-P for further info) to be much more dangerous and worth been taken care of: “ Zzzz. The only time marijuana becomes a gateway drug is when you take away marijuana then people have no choice but to move on to other much more dangerous drugs like P .”.
A lot of voices clearly demand government to legalize Marihuana and use the tax income for more relevant purposes: “ The government is blind and ignorant. Legalise pot and tax on dispensaries the country will be out of debt within 5 years.”.
Not only it is said that it affords pleasure, the medical impact of Cannabis has been testified, and its value to pain-suffering people been proved in extensive studies. There even is a Kiwi party called The Cannabis Party which fights for the legalization of Marihuana in New Zealand (http://cannabis.org.nz/).
Some of the comments openly abuse police of being involved in the crime by doubting that the drugs were really destroyed: “ well i hope you give this cannabis to the sick and suffering people who would benefit from cannabis instead of doing what police most likely will do, which is either waste it and destroy it, or the more obvious of selling it back to the community in order to profit.”.
I’ll end the post at this point and close with the words of a German ingenious artist and sage: “Gebt das Hanf frei”. ;-)
