Letter: Medicinal cannabis

Over a year and a half ago, Prime Minister Mark Brown said he would “act very quickly” to legalise medicinal cannabis after he was given an overwhelming mandate to do so by the voters in the last general election.

As of today, he has done nothing, save to cut, paste and shuffle around an already existing law to possess medicinal cannabis with a prescription from an overseas doctor. And even after that farce was passed into “law” last December, it still hasn’t been signed by the King’s Representative.

In all my long years of observing politics, I’ve never seen a politician like Mark Brown who is so easily frightened and lacking in courage to uphold the will of the people. His government is a confused and badly organised.

The collateral damage of not legalising medicinal cannabis has been immense, the consequences are real bad, just to name a few, patients are not getting their medicine, the international organised crime of the black market is making money hand over fist in the Cook Islands when legalisation would mean tax dollars to grow our economy and the legal system, Crown Law, the cops, and Judges are looked upon derisively by our society for still stigmatising medicinal cannabis.

Steve Boggs