Letters for Wednesday November 17, 2021

Dear Editor,

We know under the Narcotics & Misuse of Drugs Act of 2004, it's illegal to possess in any form the prohibited genus cannabis plant for medicinal, recreational and fiber use.

New Zealand amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act in 2018 allowed cultivation of low THC industrial hemp, and processing and trading in seeds and stalks to provide hemp food and fiber products.

In Australia ministers had to approve a decision by the food regulators to permit the sale of low THC hemp seeds.

In support of this change the Department of Health has amended controls under Customs (Prohibited Imports).

As you can see, legislation had to be passed to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act in New Zealand and Australia in order to legalize the former prohibited genus cannabis plant, hemp.

But that is not what happened here in the Cook Islands.

No legislation has been passed.

Customs has arbitrarily circumvented the law and allowed products from the prohibited genus cannabis plant, hemp, to be imported into the Cook Islands.

Thanks to Customs we are now enjoying the numerous hemp foods and fiber products being sold, for the health and wellness of our people, by many wholesalers and retailers here in Rarotonga.

Now the natural progression of this will be for Customs to allow medicinal cannabis to be imported into the Cook Islands.

Medicinal cannabis was made legal in 2020, with a prescription from a doctor in New Zealand and Australia.

Government data shows that prescriptions are on the rise in New Zealand and Australia, and patients are seeking medicinal cannabis for a wide range of health conditions.

In the past year, medicinal cannabis was most commonly prescribed for pain, mental health issues, insomnia, and neurological and skin conditions.

For now we can import medicinal cannabis but in the future the Ministry of Health needs to develop a scheme in order to allow the domestic commercial, manufacture and distribution of medicinal cannabis, and set out equality and licencing requirements.

The police and Crown prosecutors should look the other way when medicinal cannabis is imported into the Cook Islands

Similarly, it is a crime to be homosexual in the Cook Islands, but police look the other way because they know it would be morally reprehensible to arrest someone for choosing who they want to love.

Also, it would be morally reprehensible for the police and Crown prosecutors to stop the importation of medicinal cannabis because they would be interfering and inhibiting the health and wellbeing of the Cook Islands people.

Finally Mr Editor, we need not be concerned by any armchair quacks out there who will try and dispel the many benefits of medicinal cannabis.

I trust the medical expertise of the doctors in New Zealand, Australia and the Cook Islands over them.

Steven Boggs

Cook Islands News reached out to Secretary of Health Bob Williams and police spokesman Trevor Pitt for a response but did not receive a reply.

Online comments

Water-Waste

Tracey Eraio-Neilsen

Bit hard for the Cook Islands to ever go forward in the future with a corrupted heartless government!

Monday Adam Marsters Poaiti

What a waste of money, on a water system that will never work. Example we built the dam in Arorangi before I left home in 1999, that dam already got into trouble because the public water started to go green. Someone in government wasn't doing their job.

In 2003 I went back home to see they built another dam in Nikao, that’s why we have algae in our water system and in the ocean.

Stop building those dams. Some people back home have no idea what are they doing, but wasting money on plans it will never work.

Alice Faaumu

Wow any one would think we have money to waste, way to go Rarotonga always doing dumb things.

Bank Reduces Interest Rates

Mere Nanai

Wow that’s so high. No wonder some people can’t afford to pay their loans back and get their houses taken off them by the bank.

Frank Paiti Maltock

That's normal rate.....if you live in the islands you probably understand not like what we have here in NZ. And they still survive.

Jamie Charles OBrien

It’s high by today’s standards but back in the eighties I was paying 19 percent for my first mortgage and 21 percent for my second mortgage!

Digital Covid-19 certificates

John Newman

It might be better on paper.. because some of the older people won't know how to use a mobile device.

Lu Iotua

So what if you’re travelling to NZ before the digital certificates are sorted?