Should it be a crime to smoke a joint?

Green MP Nandor Tanczos has released a private members bill relating to cannabis so he can cultivate and smoke dope without breaking the law. However this bill stops short of a wholesale decriminalisation of cannabis. Although possession and cultivation of small amounts at home will be decriminalised, selling will not be.

The purpose of the Misuse of Drugs (Cannabis Infringement) Amendment Bill is to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to introduce instant fines for the personal use of cannabis rather than making a person a criminal for being caught smoking a joint. But why stop at cannabis? The bill aims to reduce cannabis convictions by letting the police focus on crimes to property. Personal use and possession will be dealt with by an instant fine of $100, with that fine rasing to $500 if caught within 100 metres of a school or another place frequented by under 18's. Under 18's found with the drug will also be fined and told to go to drug counselling.

The bill has not been drawn from the ballot, but it appears that Tanczos wants to open up the debate in the hope that the bill is drawn out of the ballot come a Greens/Labour Government.

National and United Future oppose the bill as htey say it will put children at risk. Nandor supports the bill as he says it will not put children at risk. They can't all be right.

Labour does not support the legalisation of marijuana. Justice Minister Phil Goff has said that police already have discretion not to bring charges for possession of small amounts of marijuana and use that discretion frequently. So I take it that Labour will support this bill so that the police don’t have to exercise that discretion.

There are three things everybody agrees on: Children should not smoke cannabis, education programmes should be put in place for those that do, or want to, and the current law is not working to decrease usage. So something has to change. The biggest question is whether to change the system without changing the law

Should it be a crime for adults to smoke pot just because kids might use it – as they are doing anyway? Will continued criminalisation of cannabis protect kids and stop kids smoking it? It’s not happening at the moment. Education may protect kids from harm as long as behavioural attitudes change.

DO you think behavioural attitudes will change as a result of the passage of this bill or will the kids smoke more knowing that all they`ll get is a $100.00 fine and a bit of drug counselling.