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| Provisional Submission to Parliament's Law & Order Committee on the Liquor purchasing age: Sale of Liquor (Youth Harm Prevention) Amendments Bill In 1999 the ALCP submitted to Parliament and made the following points about the then Sale of Liquor amendments, lowering the legal purchasing age for liquor. 1. Harmful youth drinking is symptomatic of a failure in health promotion and rule of law - and failure to minimise drug-related harm. The problem must be seen in the 'integrated drug policy' context, which includes high usage and uptake of the other prevalent and popular intoxicant on the youth market in NZ, cannabis. 2. Analysis from Parliament's Health select Committee in 1998 (inquiry into the mental health effects of cannabis) concluded cannabis laws are ineffective and that 'double standards surrounding cannabis [alcohol & tobacco] are 'an impediment to effective anti-drug education'. 3. That Health committee also recommended 'consistency' in the education context for alcohol, tobacco and cannabis, and requested, significantly, that "government review the appropriateness of existing policy on cannabis and its use, and reconsider the legal status of cannabis". 4. The Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion, 1986, highlights the need to identify and remove 'obstacles to effective health promotion in non-health sectors'. The ALCP noted the intrusion of ineffective and double standards-based justice and policing interventions in respect of cannabis as being exactly such an obstacle, impacting on all youth behaviours (notably binge drinking phenomena). 5. Our Party's analysis concluded that consideration of alcohol use in isolation from the system where general drug laws are subject to disrespect and non-compliance, especially amongst youth, represented an invalid and erroneous basis for analysis of the problem, and determining of a solution. 6. Other groups at the time advocating 'systemic' analysis of youth harm minimisation issues in relation to the drinking age included the NZ Drug Foundation, and the NZ Drug Policy Forum Trust. The Cannabis Party in 1999 recommended to Parliament that the drinking age NOT be lowered, without addressing the issues of double standards, and apparent drug-law inequity, highlighted above. Although this was accepted by Justice and Law Reform Committee MPs during a hearing in Christchurch in April 1999, as a valid and indeed arguably crucial point of view, it must be noted that holistic analysis was all but absent from parliamentary debate preceding the drinking age votes. The drinking age was lowered in late 1999 ostensibly as a harm reduction move (acknowledging that most 18 and 19 year olds were already well acquainted with alcohol). Our Party was reservedly supportive of this rolling back of prohibitionist tendencies in anticipation of a Labour Party assurance that Cannabis Law would be reviewed. During the 2 subsequent terms of parliament, however, the basic issue of the most appropriate legal status of cannabis was evaded by the Health Committee which reported in August 2003. That committee handed its legal status question to the Justice and Electoral Committee, which it is understood, has not made any progress on this question to date (2 years on). In effect the double standards have been amplified in the time since the liquor purchasing age was lowered, which has correlated to worse youth-drug outcomes, as predicted by our modeling of the problem. Conclusion / Recommendation: Only by repealing the prohibition and unwarranted criminalisation of cannabis use in NZ, can any real and sustainable progress be made in ensuring effective health promotion, and compliance with respected rule of law (c.f. Holland). This reform will enable a context largely free of double standards, where strong, consistent and credible messages will not fall on deaf ears: A consistent legal framework will DELIVER the message: recreational drugs (including alcohol) are not good for children and adolescents. An R18 model for controlled availability has been put in place recently with a new 'restricted substances' classification under the Misuse of Drugs Act Amendments #3, 2005. The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party's policy statement on the liquor age issue from 1999 may be viewed at http://www.mildgreens.com/alcrecs.htm - This page links to the party's actual submission from 1999 (several pages) Kevin O'Connell, President 025 265 7064 |