Rikkitic:

 

Here is a surprise. Significant numbers of young people have been smoking pot in Holland for years. That is a country that has a far more generous public health system than we do, yet it is not overburdened by decrepit drug users. In fact, most of those pot smokers are students who go on to become concert musicians, politicians, sociologists, and yes, even psychologists, and many continue to enjoy the occasional toke well into old age. Of course some also just go on the dole and never amount to anything, very much like any cross-section of society. The question I always come back to is what is it about New Zealand that makes us so much more vulnerable and in need of excessive protection from the nanny brigade? I am not arguing that drugs of any kind are good for us, though some actually may be  in the right circumstances. I am arguing that rational adults who are considered capable of making their own decisions do not want self-appointed moral guardians dictating their behaviour.

 

From an observational viewpoint, I would have to say that what it is about New Zealand is the inability (unwillingness?) to distinguish being the occasional toke versus excessive consumption.  I would say that there is a definite change in the air with respect to this inability - fewer people appear to have the aim of getting completely wasted and seem to enjoy a simple buzz, so perhaps with time "New Zealand" would cope without the "excessive protection".

I still find it rather ironic that there is enormous support to quash tobacco smoking in this country, yet a drug whose primary method of consumption is via smoking has a large amount of support to be decriminalised / legalised.