Racism Embedded In The Cannabis Referendum – Is Keeping Marijuana Illegal An Attempt At Continual Colonisation?
By Ella Bowater

The year 2020 has highlighted a significant shift in the way racial inequity is viewed around the world, and it is starting to be challenged by society. Movements such as “Black Lives Matter” have paved the way for minority groups, which has been supported by New Zealanders through protest. But is it time to look in our own backyard of New Zealand to discuss the upcoming cannabis referendum, and to examine how current cannabis laws are racist to Indigenous groups such as Māori?

In New Zealand, under the Misuse of Drugs 1975, cannabis is currently illegal. However, there is no question that a vast majority of Kiwis use or have used cannabis. New Zealanders are amongst the top marijuana users in the world, but our laws are some of the harshest in the world too. In New Zealand, police tend to operate in a discretionary manner in relation to low-level cannabis use and possession, where the majority of people found with it face no punishments whatsoever. In this sense, cannabis use has become decriminalised in practice. But this is only with respect to non-minority groups, as the Criminal Justice System does not turn a blind eye to Māori individuals that are caught with cannabis.

The practice of racialised policing is evident in New Zealand, where Māori are three times more likely to come into police attention than Pakeha individuals, even when offending rates are the same. Māori are also three times as likely to be arrested than other users of cannabis.
These rates are substantially higher than for Māori than non-Māori, which is reflected by the significant over-representation of Māori in the Criminal Justice System. Because of these disparities, Māori suffer more negative long-term impacts than non-Māori as a result of arrest and/or imprisonment, such as a disruption in access to healthcare, education and employment.

Legalising cannabis allows for the reduction of prison sentences in relation to cannabis use and possession, which in my opinion, is not a drug that individuals should be serving time for. The New Zealand criminal justice system is incredibly punitive in nature, and the stigma attached to people who have served time is long-lasting, especially for Māori. Prison does not serve as an effective deterrent of crime, and keeping cannabis legal does not decrease its use. Recreational use of cannabis will become legal under this 2020 legislation, meaning that this legalisation will help to eliminate the racism that comes from the enforcement of cannabis prohibition, both in police practice and society itself.

Some would argue that substances which are currently legal in NZ, such as alcohol, pose more of a threat to society than cannabis does. Kiwis have a problematic culture of binge-drinking, which is known to lead to drink-driving, family violence and addiction, among other things. It seems evident that the harm that comes from drinking alcohol is a lot more prevalent than the smoking of cannabis, so why is alcohol legal and cannabis is not?

As said by Juliet Gerrard, "Māori have borne the brunt of biased enforcement and the negative health effects of cannabis being illegal.” Therefore, addressing the social inequity that comes as a result of cannabis being illegal is necessary. The decolonisation of Aotearoa runs much more deeply and is much more complex than just the legalisation of cannabis. Although, it is one step in the right direction in the efforts to reducing the racism evident in the criminal justice system and New Zealand as a whole.

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