NEW ZEALAND – A new poll suggests more than 60 per cent of New Zealanders want a cannabis law change.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation, which commissioned the survey, said it was the first such poll to show a majority backing the loosening of rules on the personal use of marijuana.

Of 1029 participants, 64 per cent thought possessing a small amount of cannabis for personal use should be either legal (33 per cent) or decriminalised (31 per cent). A minority of 34 percent supported maintaining prohibition of personal use and possession of cannabis.

A Drug Foundation spokesperson said previous similar polls had shown the opposite or a 50/50 split.

Executive director Ross Bell said the support for change was much higher than he anticipated and showed the public wanted change even if lawmakers did not.

“The voters have better understood this issue, that there are alternatives, that the current approach – the 40 year approach– that we’ve taken hasn’t done anything to arrest New Zealand’s cannabis use and maybe it’s time to try something new,” Bell said.

“We’re acutely aware of the health problems associated with cannabis – we’ve been trying to reduce those harms for a long time – but those harms exist under the current approach.

“If we flip it around, remove the criminal justice approach, put in a health approach, then we might actually grow up in New Zealand and start dealing with cannabis in the way that it should always be dealt with.”

Bell said politicians should now be able to proceed with cautious reform without fear of a voter backlash.

Prime Minister John Key admits the laws around cannabis are not always working perfectly – but says liberalisation of drug laws is not on the government’s agenda.

“It’s been my longstanding view really that one of the things that parliament does is send a message to people about activity we want to see or not want to see.

“In the case of drugs I think if we as a parliament were to decriminalise then one of the message we’d be sending is that increased drug use is okay.”

Key said police did not generally prosecute people using cannabis for medical reasons, and used their judgement on personal use.

“There are always tolerances and margins – it’s for the police to determine that.”

The poll also showed 52 per cent of participants wanted to see the liberalisation of personal growing of cannabis, and 66 per cent thought it should be legal for those with a terminal illness to use the drug.

“The poll shows that it doesn’t matter what party people back, there is consistent support to move away from the criminal justice approach to drugs,” Bell said.

He said other factors in the changing attitudes were recent debates around medical marijuana and law reform in Canada and some US states.

Massey University drug researcher Chris Wilkins was surprised at the result and agreed the change could be due to the moves overseas. Four US states have recently legalised cannabis through citizens-initiated ballots.

“We are getting to the point where a referendum is appropriate, but the really important thing here is if we go down the referendum track is that people are aware of all the different policy options that are out there. The worst case scenario is we just switch on to a commercial-driven market.”

Wilkins said another interesting aspect of the poll was the result by party affiliation, showing 55 per cent of National Party voters surveyed were least in favour of any kind of change.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne made no comment on the poll.

The nationwide poll, carried out last month and earlier this month by Curia Market Research, has a margin of error of three per cent.

- RNZI