摘要：T he New Zealand government recently announced that a Parliamentary Select Committee would investigate the most effective public health strategies to reduce the harm of cannabis, including its legal status. Public hearings of submissions began on 30 May this year. Those in favour of the legalisation of cannabis in New Zealand have pointed out that if cannabis were legalised buyers and sellers of the drug would have full access to the legal and consumer protections currently enjoyed by all other consumers (see Drug Policy Forum Trust, 1997 and 1998; www.norml.org.nz; www.alcp.org.nz). Under drug prohibition, drug users and drug dealers cannot call on the police and courts to enforce the terms of transactions, and are unlikely to report incidents of victimisation to the police for fear of prosecution. (Barnett, 1987; Kleiman, 1992; Miron and Zwiebel, 1995).
