A New Zealand family is torn in half because draconian laws prevent them from accessing the natural medicine their daughter needs to prevents seizures. Corporate interests have made all alternatives to pharmaceuticals illegal, so the family is forced to flee to South Africa to get healthcare.
It sounds like a dystopian cyberpunk novel along the lines of The Verity Key, but this is actually the reality of New Zealand today.
Kiwis like to smugly think that their country is more socially advanced than the others: after all, we gave women the right to vote in 1893. Surely we’re more advanced than South Africa, in any case. But on the major moral issues of the day, New Zealand is already more backwards than South Africa.
A court in the Western Cape just ruled that cannabis can be used in the home without fear of prosecution. This means that South Africa has a more enlightened, compassionate and mature approach to the War on Drugs than New Zealand.
Does any court in New Zealand have the courage to do that? Not a chance in hell. Our judges and justice system representatives happily lick the arses of the politicians who command them to put Kiwis in cages for their use of a medicinal plant.
This comes after Uruguay fully legalised cannabis in 2013.
It might come as a blow to the pride of Kiwi readers to hear that their country, long considered forwards-thinking, is now more culturally backwards than South Africa and parts of South America. But it’s true, and we’re going to have to get used to it. They have surpassed us in cultural advancement, because we have stagnated so badly.
The total failure of the New Zealand Baby Boomers to hold the political class to account has meant that New Zealanders actually lack rights than people in certain parts of Africa enjoy.
When South Africa legalised gay marriage in 2006, Kiwis who knew about it mostly wrote it off as a fluke, one that went against the run of play. But now that a South African court has ruled cannabis legal – again, well in advance of any New Zealand court doing so – we Kiwis have to accept that we are now the socially and culturally retarded cousin in the relationship. They have surpassed us.
Even prisoners in Uruguayan jails have access to medicinal cannabis.
Considering that one of the major psychiatric uses for medicinal cannabis is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and considering that misbehaving on account of having complications from PTSD is one of the major reasons why people end up in prison, withholding it from prisoners in New Zealand seems inhumanely cruel.
Cruel, but reflective of who we really are, not who we pretend to be. Our reputation as a world leader on social issues is gone, gone, gone. We pissed it down the toilet for tax cuts and a lift in the value of our property portfolios.
The third world country at the bottom of Africa that had apartheid based on race until 1994 is now more socially advanced than New Zealand. That’s how far behind we have fallen. That’s how badly the Baby Boomer intellectuals have failed us.
Kiwis, we are now more backwards than South Africa, and this is not a new idea that has fluttered into the consciousness but a grim reality that has been bitterly chewed over for a decade. Is there anyone left with the will to challenge this?
The dishonesty and disingenuity woven into this article is astounding. To possibly compare New Zealand and South Africa and draw the conclusion that SA is more “advanced” than New Zealand, one must be deeply ignorant of the situations of both countries.
South Africa is a country where the President has claimed that one can “cleanse” himself of AIDS by taking a shower. It is also a country where the President is a bigamist.
South Africa is a country with 67 murder per 100,000 people, compared to New Zealand’s 0.9 per 100,000. This is 10x the murder rate of America, taking into account population size.
It is a country that consistently ranks close to the bottom when ranked by educational achievement.
It is a country where most of the population live in fear, terrorised by roving gangs of criminals who murder, rob and steal without hesitation; where the police are all but useless.
But yes, you’re right: your trivial, meaningless little pet social issue makes South Africa a better country in which to live. Don’t mind the fact that the country is run by dysfunctional, economically illiterate, apathetic, socialist thugs, where the men in power loot the population to enrich themselves.
Yes, your plant is more important than the quality of people’s lives (or whether they live at all).
Never mind the fact that the Government has likely only legalised this drug to avoid having to take responsibility for the fact that the enforcement of criminal law is abysmally poor.
The author could not be more out of touch if he tried. He betrays his complete lack of ability to recognise the real issues affecting people.
The government had no involvement in the matter. They were ordered by the highest court to change the law because it is in conflict with the country’s constitution. It is however backward for any country to continue putting users in jail for the mere possession and use of recreational drugs. Quite right to criticise New Zealand in this area.
Malaysia is far more advanced than South Africa
Malaysia was completely socially backward on this topic. It’s a country where the state murdered people for drug smuggling.
You make life hard the article is about the first moron above. Dont dare tell people they need to enjoy the taste of policy that demonizes a un heard section of population. Im a nzer im threatened by freedom please every time i vote for the same thing like i have brain damage make more policies to satisfy the cheerleaders who like these things over here and dont do these things over there and hate them so lets deprive the people it helps. But i would gladly compromise to the end of the earth for all citizens but bob over there wont he will hold his rifle to my head and tell me its this way or the highway to a prison cell. Sad thing you lose no sleep depriving people. Misinformation kiwis are addicted to it. Last thing we live on an island incubator in the pacific disconnected from human life of 7 billion people.
Its not NZ Data and we collect bias data so the 23 years of Canadian data is no use because its real and debunks our government thats ok let our government collect their illegitimate fake data to say their island data is the truth and all other countries with real data is misinformation. Didn’t know 100s of millions of citizens on earth were being lied to with the truth the facts and honesty. Lets listen to 6 million shills who wont acknowledge 400 million honest truthful people with real backed up data over in this camp. That’s the NZ way all right and you guys love it makes me wanna vomit.
When a NZer turns up with zero data and 1945 ideologies on drugs ( Cannabis ) and try to stand on both feet you’re a joke even America had the brains to go honest and say it was all a lie. We believed Americas lie in 1945 but we refuse to believe the truth from the same country 80 plus years later. Dont touch our beloved non medicinal alcohol though oh no we drank that for how long even though cannabis has been heavily used for 10s of thousands of years by humans as medicine and as recreation. Go shove opiates down my throat though you SHILLS. Do any NZer’s know what a shill is just find a mirror and you will see what a shill looks and sounds like.
Now im gonna plant a field of Opium poppy because by NZ standards thats fine but my field of cannabis next to my field of heroin gets me in jail but as long as i dont get caught bleeding a heroin poppy its perfectly ok got it dont bleed the poppy , what about the weed seeds NO ILLEGAL DEMON WEED you could germinate the seed and grow more then 1 plant but my 20 thousand pretty evil looking poppies are fine.
Got it ooooh rah oops we have no army navy or air force not that citizens care or understand about how bad and wrong that is or respect my grandfather who won medals fighting for all you clowns on the front line as a Maori squad leader who live in ignorance today with more policies and laws that make our lives harder and leaves people suffering in silence not that the non sufferers could ever care or understand. The people that need help and get none just wanna give it to every citizen the ones who have a rosy healthy life who dont understand dont care unless it benefits them first and only them.