Junk

The Key Government went to great lengths to protect the health of the relatively few New Zealanders who use the illegal drug Methamphetamine, commonly called P. So concerned was it to ban this junk from society that in the process it banned a useful drug that was harmless, effectively relieved the symptoms of cold, and was popular with many thousands of sensible, law-abiding New Zealanders. The problem was that some people were using certain ingredients of the good drug in the manufacture of the bad drug. So we all had to be punished.  

Block punishment is a well known ploy in reformatory circles. It goes like this: One or two inmates break the rules. Everyone is punished. It’s a bit like giving all drivers in Christchurch demerit points because of boy-racers. The effectiveness of this behaviour modification strategy lies in its powerful peer-pressure effect. Well, it works in boarding schools. Perhaps that’s where the Ministers learned the trick. Perhaps they were too busy to work out that even when block punishment works it breeds resentment.

Then there’s the strange case of the junk that all schoolchildren were being sold in school canteens. In this case the previous (nanny) government banned the junk and insisted that canteens stock only healthy food. But the Key Government reversed the ban. Presumably on the premise that if children want to eat food that is bad for their health it is not the government’s place to intervene. 

It gets worse: In Britain the top drugs advisor made the mistake of embarrassing the government by stating the well known scientific fact that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol. He was sacked.

No wonder the Green Party stopped talking sensibly about cannabis years ago.

So, nicotine, which kills in the thousands, is okay provided it is regulated and the tax is paid. Ditto for alcohol which is responsible for lowering the inhibitions of most of the violent offenders in our prisons. Bashed women and children and abused Accident and Emergency staff have alcohol to thank for their pains. Or, let’s be accurate here, they have to thank those who abuse alcohol. 

If they weren’t banned I’d pop an ecstasy pill.