Q+A: Chloe Swarbrick and Bob McCoskrie debate on Cannabis

Should New Zealand legalise cannabis for personal use? Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick and Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First debate the issues.

Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick – looks to Canada model for drug reform.

‘Canada is going to be doing this on Wednesday this coming week. I think that they have a really robust set of regulations that they’re looking at. They are focussed on harm reduction, they’re focussed on education, they’re focussed on taking it out of the hands of kids. I think that’s quite different from models that we have seen perhaps in the likes of Colorado which are more free market type models..’
‘What we are proposing and what we have been quite strong on for a while now is doing something that looks like legalising, so providing the legislation rather first so there is black and white what we are going to be voting on at that referendum come 2019 or 2020, so remove all grey from the debate’

Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First

‘When you talk about a referendum on marijuana ..that people are thinking of rolling a joint and the mellow euphoria and it’s going to harm nobody. But what you actually find is that this is big marijuana. At a time when we are kicking big tobacco out of this country finally because we have realised the health harms. We are putting out the welcome mat for big marijuana.’

You can watch the full debate here.

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