New Zealand

Wed
14
Dec

New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Loophole Shut down by Government

Closing a loophole allowing travellers to bring in prescribed medicinal cannabis into New Zealand from the United States is "barbaric" and "mean spirited", campaigners say.

Information on New Zealand Customs and The Ministry of Health website this week said  cannabis-based products from the US could not be carried into New Zealand. Customs staff were taking that stance from Wednesday.

Golden Bay woman Rebecca Reider, who this year successfully bought in a month's supply of US prescribed cannabis products for pain relief, said the Government's decision was a "barbaric and deliberate attempt to stop sick people in pain from getting their medicine."

It would affect her in a "very real way".

Fri
09
Dec

Legal cannabis in New Zealand? Green Party offers green light to pot smokers

Marijuana plants for sale at the California Heritage Market in Los Angeles, California. The Green Party wants regulated sale of marijuana in New Zealand.

The Green Party say it will legalise cannabis if it forms a government next year.

Under its proposal, people would be able to legally grow and possess marijuana for personal use.

The Green Party would also urgently amend the law so sick people using medicinal marijuana were not penalised.

Green Party

Green Party health spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter says there’s been a shift in public attitudes on medical marijuana and the legalisation of cannabis.

Tue
06
Dec

Mapped: The Countries That Smoke the Most Cannabis

The country with the biggest weed habit? That might surprise you.

A new report claims the UK government should legalise marijuana because it's “the only solution to crime and addiction problems”.

The strongly-worded study - titled The Tide Effect: How the World is Changing its Mind on Cannabis - was produced by the nonpartisan Adam Smith Institute and has the backing of several cross-party MPs including former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.

Thu
01
Dec

Mapped: The countries that smoke the most cannabis

A new report claims the UK government should legalise marijuana because it's “the only solution to crime and addiction problems”.

The strongly-worded study - titled The Tide Effect: How the World is Changing its Mind on Cannabis - was produced by the nonpartisan Adam Smith Institute and has the backing of several cross-party MPs including former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.

Wed
26
Oct

Is the World Ready for a Cannabis Explosion? Well, Get Ready, Here It Comes.

I can recall a time when it was a rarity to hear or read about a news story about cannabis. For almost two decades I kept a database of every cannabis related news story that I came across. I could never keep up with the torrent of pot news coming out now. 

As someone who was a child in the 1960’s and a counter-culture teenager in the 70s, I recall the intense stigma and controversy that the herb had attached to it. 

Tue
18
Oct

New Zealand: Medicinal Cannabis Costs Set to Tumble After Cheaper Product Gets Green Light

The cost of medicinal cannabis is set to tumble after Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne approved a Canadian pain relief product.

It is estimated the marijuana-based tincture called Tilray will cost at least 50 per cent less than the existing legal product Sativex, a UK mouth spray made by GW Pharma.

Multiple sclerosis sufferer, Dr Huhana Hickey, who applied to use Tilray, said: "I'm so relieved. It's going to save me $700 a month."

The AUT academic says she has spent $9000 on prescriptions since she started taking medicinal cannabis in February. Hickey says the results have been remarkable.

"I'm living my life again. I'm back to work, I am fully-functioning"

Wed
12
Oct

New Zealand: Taranaki Has a Say in National Petition Calling for Cannabis Law Reform

Hemp would grow better than manuka on the rolling hills of Taranaki, a councillor says.

New Plymouth District Councillor Murray Chong was one of the 130 people in Taranaki to put his name on a national petition calling for Parliament to legalise marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"Venture Taranaki suggest manuka should be a bigger industry here, but what about hemp?" he said. "I think it would go really well here."

The petition was launched in March by Rose Renton, whose son was the first person in New Zealand to be treated with imported medical marijuana drug Elixinol.

The petition was signed by more than 17,000 people throughout New Zealand and presented to Labour MP Damien O'Connor on Wednesday.

Wed
05
Oct

New Zealand: Rotorua Businesses Help Fundraise for Medicinal Cannabis Cause

Rotorua businesses have raised their hands to help fundraise for medicinal cannabis.

Medical Cannabis Awareness New Zealand (MCANZ) is currently doing a fundraising campaign called #MC410 for legal cannabis treatments for people in a similar situation to Zoe Jefferies, a young Rotorua girl who is responding well to Sativex for her epilepsy.

Sativex is a Ministry of Health-approved cannabis oil-based mouth spray.

MCANZ co-ordinator Shane Le Brun said Rotorua was a great place to fundraise as local businesses often came forward to help.

"Most businesses think we are all a bunch of hippies, but we are quite the opposite."

Tue
04
Oct

Grand Designs Has Featured One of New Zealand's First Hemp Homes

Hemp is turning a new leaf in Taranaki, with a house made of the marijuana-like plant featuring on tonight's Grand Designs NZ.

New Plymouth couple Greg Whitham and Gayle Avery wanted to build a rustic French farmhouse-style home for their extended family - and they wanted to do this using hemp.

Whitham and Avery's hemp house.

Whitham and Avery's hemp house.

But being one of the first hemp homes in New Zealand presented numerous challenges, with the results revealed on tonight's episode of the hit TV3 series.

Wed
21
Sep

Grow up and Legalise Cannabis, New Zealand

The fact cannabis isn't legalised is perplexing for many reasons.

Let me start with the perception that legalisation will throw our country into ruin and lead to our children being hopeless drug addicts. This sort of talk comes from people who may mean well, but have a loose grip on the reality of the situation.

I recently visited Denver, Colorado in the United States, where cannabis has been legal in the city since 2005 and state-wide since 2013, and I actively sought information on the transition.

What Colorado has now is an orderly, well-regulated system and a cannabis industry of responsible tax-paying employers that have added a considerable amount of funds to state coffers.

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