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Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the decision to ban legal highs means it’s time to look again at marijuana law reform.
The Greens were the only party to vote against the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Act that was rushed through under urgency yesterday.
The Act means sales of 41products which had interim approval must end at midnight.
Ms Turei says the previous legislation was undermined by the Health Ministry’s failure to produce regulations to control testing, which meant potentially harmful substances stayed on the market.
She says it also raises the question why marijuana remains illegal.
"The medical profession has been saying over and over since the synthetics came on the market that they did not see anything like these issues with cannabis use. Because people can buy it from shops they are shifting from cannabis use to synthetics and they are suffering as a result. We have a ridiculous situation in New Zealand at the moment," Ms Turei says.
She says the shift back to prohibition, which has never worked, means the focus has gone off having drug laws that are about human safety.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH METIRIA TUREI CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MTc4NDc=
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