Dear Editor, I feel for those who wants this referendum to be accepted due to their illness and pain.

What I understand and learned about cannabis is that it is like Panadol and any pain killers, a temporary measure. Once it loses its effect, your pain and illness return. Like alcohol, if you become addicted, it affects your brain and your mind become distorted. Many loves it, because it makes your reality of stress, pain, heartache and many other painful physical and emotional pain disappear but for a moment. If it is accepted, I pray that only the safe type of cannabis can be legalised.

I as a nurse have taken care of many patients in NZ and Australia who have committed serious crime under the influence of cannabis, and also having hallucination and mental illness from ingesting cannabis, hence my comment.

I have witness first hand the effects of uncured plants (meaning fresh of the plant) that young people used. However, these days research has been done to separate the medicinal benefit from the potent part.

Again, it’s a temporary fix. I have yet to know of someone being cured by cannabis. By the way my comments are not to dissuade the decision, only based on my experience. Thank you again. God bless.

Apii Inukiha'angana

(Facebook)

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Dealing with dog problem

It is very interesting to read the comments (on Facebook) regarding Professor Dr John Dunn’s opinion about problem barriers to tourism in Cook Islands today. (Dealing with the four-legged attack weapon, Cook Islands News, June 18, 2022)

FYI, he is a Cook Islander, my third cousin, a descendant of Tepaeru Pakiri McGuire of Ngati Terei and Ngati Puati of Teimurimotia.

His statement clearly outlines the issues and solutions to control these problems, mainly focused on Rarotonga today, if we hope to welcome visitors including our own people to enjoy a memorable holiday and return again. The dog issue is a major problem. I hope that the Government will enforce the law to register dogs, have them desexed and educate our people to care for them, so our visitors and our young and elderly folks will be safe in our paradise.

By the way, thank you Dr John Dunn for your great assistance to our Rarotonga hospital, for over 15 years and sponsoring some of our medical students at Auckland University. I would like to invite you to beautiful Samoa and experience the Faa Samoa.

Annie Caffery Petaia

(Facebook)

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It’s a war between the people and dogs. There are two problems here. Dogs attacking people vs people poisoning dog. It’s really insane. If the dog does the crime punish him. Put it down. End of story. What if it’s the other way around? It gets forgotten. Some dogs are being poisoned with paraquat. Not only are the dogs at fault but we are too.

People want justice for dog attacks but what about those that do harm to our animals. Like the person who is going around poisoning people’s dogs in Rutaki with paraquat for what crime.

Aloha Jimmy

(Facebook)