When I was in my first year of uni, some MPs came to speak at my hall. Afterwards, a friend and I asked one of them (who is no longer in parliament) about the reasons they disagree with drug reform. They told us that weed was low harm, but that it was a good to be able to charge young people with possession when “you knew they were up to something but couldn’t prove it.”
Of course, my friend and I knew that most of those young people would be Māori.
The current laws play on people’s concern for the health of young people, but instead of protecting them, we end up causing more harm – mostly to people who are already having a rough time.
