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Cannabis referendum: MPs urged to consider legal age of use

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 6 May 2019, 6:35AM
A Cabinet paper leaked to the National Party recommends a legal age of 20.

Cannabis referendum: MPs urged to consider legal age of use

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 6 May 2019, 6:35AM

MPs are being urged to think seriously about the legal age of purchasing cannabis, as they consider options for a referendum.

A Cabinet paper leaked to the National Party recommends a legal age of 20.

Drug Foundation Executive Director, Ross Bell, told Kate Hawkesby restricting it to 20-year-olds or over could be a mistake.

"We do want to keep cannabis and alcohol away from young people so having something like 20 would be quite sensible. The flip side to that is that anything under that age remains illegal and in the black market, so we may want to weigh up whether we want to have an age of 18 instead so that we can give younger people greater public health protection."

However, Bell also backed up National's claim that smoking cannabis before the age of 25 is detrimental to the brain. He said they are correct, but that also applies to other drugs such as alcohol.

"There is science around how long it takes for the brain to develop...but that science applies to drugs like alcohol as much as it does for cannabis. I'm sure if National is recommending the age be 20 or indeed 25 for alcohol as well as cannabis."

He said he thinks the public would be onboard with a purchase age of 20.

In terms of the tax rate for cannabis, Bell said it needs to be set at a rate which can help the Government regulate its use, without creating a black market.

"If they are going to choose to regulate cannabis there are a lot of tools in their box they can use to protect young people. The age is one, the price of cannabis would be another and the way to influence the price is through the tax."

"Just as we have seen with tobacco there will be a tipping point, so you do want to have tax set at a certain rate so you can keep that price high...keeps it away from pocket money prices, but you don't want to go so far as to drive people to the black market," Bell said.

He said he thinks New Zealanders want all the information so they know exactly what they are voting for or against.

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