Drugreporter’s video advocacy team gives you a global overview of cannabis reform – watch our interviews with key activists from 6 countries where major reforms are underway!<\/p>\n
Cannabis reform is in the air. After decades of draconian laws and demonising propaganda, cannabis has now become part of the mainstream. With changing public attitudes, the momentum to regulate the cannabis market has finally come. We have made films about cannabis reform in the US before – but cannabis reform has stepped on the accelerator in many other parts of the world in recent years. In some countries reform has been initiated by legislature, in others by the judicial system. As I pointed out in an earlier article<\/a>, companies are now lobbying to introduce the commercialised \u2018North American model\u2019 to other countries. However, some activists disagree with this approach. They advocate for more social justice – and less big business. We used the 63rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna this March to interview some of them.<\/p>\n New Zealand has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in the world. Its harsh drug laws and restrictive policing could not reduce drug use – it merely replaced the market and led to the use of more dangerous new psychoactive substances (watch our earlier movie here!<\/a>). In May 2019 the new Left-Green government published its draft legislation to reform cannabis laws in May 2019, and announced that it will undertake a referendum to ask people if they support it or not. According to the draft law, every adult could buy quality-controlled legal cannabis in licensed stores. What are the chances at the referendum and how will the new regulation look if adopted? We interviewed two activists who campaign for the Yes vote in the upcoming referendum – Ross Bell, the head of the New Zealand Drug Policy Foundation, and Tracey Potiki from Te Rau Ora about how they see their chances.<\/p>\nNew Zealand<\/h1>\n