It’s not every day that we give Clare Curran praise, but she deserves it. She’s made quite a brave admission.
She has admitted to smoking dope, and not only that, but also being busted by police for possession of.
Now I don’t want to blow this out of proportion. Clare Curran’s not the first politician to ever have admitted to it.
But, even now, months away from a referendum on whether marijuana should be legal, fessing up still seems like a brave thing to do.
The reason I say that is look at Jacinda Ardern. She’s popular, she’s got political capital to burn, but the best she can do answer-wise is to say “I was raised Mormon and then I was not Mormon.." And we need to figure out what that means.
And see what the PM did there? She made it sound like it was youthful folly. Like she came out of Mormonism, did a bit of experimenting and then I suppose grew out of it - that’s the indication, right?
Curran’s done the same thing. Many decades ago she said, and it was because of period pain.
I’m not going to judge the veracity of that story.
But I think it tells us a lot about the future of the cannabis referendum. It’s dead in the water.
Clare Curran is an MP leaving parliament, so she hasn’t got much to lose in terms of political capital, and she supports the legalisation of cannabis, she’s planning to vote yes.
And we’re only months away from a vote on whether to legalise this stuff. If even Clare Curran feels like she needs to make excuses, if it still seems brave for her to have done admitted it, then I think it’s fair to say we’re not ready to legalise marijuana yet.
And we’re not going to be ready. No one’s mobilised a campaign to promote legalisation. The PM won’t say which way she’s voting.
This is an absolute waste of everyone’s time by the Greens. They fought for this referendum, and now they’re not fighting to change minds. It’s a waste of time and money.
Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you
