Turner: UF stands firm against cannabis

United Future will stand firm in it opposition to the legalisation of cannabis for the good of New Zealand families, Judy Turner, the party's health spokesperson, said today, two days before the release of the Health Select Committee report on the drug.

"And the position we are taking is all the more crucial in the light of the Green Party's concerted and renewed campaign for the legalisation of this drug with an absolute disregard for the devastation it wreaks," Mrs Turner said.

"United Future won a huge victory for families when it secured a commitment from the Government a year ago in its supply and confidence agreement that cannabis laws will not be changed during the life of this Government, and that commitment holds today.

"The Greens may wish to make all sorts of changes behind a cannabis smokescreen, but the fact is that this is a drug that destroys lives, and it's a gateway to harder drugs, such as P.

"And the drug P has quite literally fuelled murderous rampages and suicides. It is one of the most dangerous substances ever unleashed on the young people of New Zealand.

"One has to look at the context of any party's position on the drug issue. And when the Greens fight to legalise cannabis, we should remember that just three months ago they were the party that stridently opposed P being listed as a Class A drug," she said.

"Green positions on drugs are all too clear - and all too dangerous."

Mrs Turner said that the issue of the medical use of cannabis was complex and needed to be treated seriously, "and frankly, we should be looking to the thinking of medical and ethical experts, rather than the Greens and assorted self-medicating weekend pot-heads".

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