Lets go Greek!

The ancient Greeks, in particular the Athenians, were extraordinary in their intellectual achievements. Perhaps one of the reasons for this was their remarkable belief system. They believed that individuals have the right to be free as long as they acted within the law. They established democracy thousands of years ago, demos, the Greek word meaning people and Kratos, meaning power or to rule.
 In Athenian Democracy all people were all required to vote, and each year, 500 citizens names were drawn from a pool. They became the leaders and served for a year.
Two proverbs exist from that era that confirm the freedoms that was democracy,
 The first "Nothing in excess " also means anything goes.
The second , "know thyself" implys a high level of self- honesty is required and self reflection the norm.
This week the Greek Prime Minister moved one step closer towards legalisation of cannabis. he also moved towards a new law allowing homosexual couples to co-habit.
In That aspect, New Zealand is light years ahead of the Greeks, due to our far more liberal religious views, we embraced homosexual law reform in 1986. We have had a Civil Union and Protitution Law Reorm Bills in the last five years also.
Unfortunately scant regard has been paid to the 400,000 users of cannabis in New Zealand. Despite having cannabis laws that are 36years old, and The New Zealand Law Commission , and the New Zealand drug Foundation suggesting it is the best way . Peter Dunne , who is not a Doctor, but an associate Minister of health , a complete underling in parliament. He would be a minnow team in the rugby. (Some one like USA, where most prohibition was an epic failure too)
Yet this political worm has done a dirty deal back in 1996 with Labour to supply his support to the first MMP government. What, Peter Dunne can take credit for is an excessive backlog in the court system, waits of two years are common, a whole industry of paid professionals profiting from cannabis offences being held in criminal courts. In addition to the $121,million dollars cost of enforcing cannabis, there is the cost of these six identified workforces , the police, the courts, clerks to judges, lawyers, the counsellors and treatment professionals, the prison staff and the dealers are all making a living because cannabis is still illegal in new Zealand.
I know the economy is crashing in Greece but they are way ahead of us in human rights. The denial of medical trials is a whole new blog for tomorrow .
It is time for a health based approach to cannabis. That's all we want.