The Court of Appeal has introduced new guidelines for judges sentencing people convicted of offences relating to the importation, manufacture and supply of methamphetamine.
“Methamphetamine dealers could have their sentences reduced by up to 30 percent if they can prove addiction caused their offending, the Court of Appeal has ruled.”
Newshub
On the AM show, Ryan Bridge spoke with Jacinda Ardern who indicated that she prefers to go soft on methamphetamine users rather than on their suppliers, making you wonder if she is familiar with the law of supply and demand.
The BFD Transcript of the interview is below:
Ardern: “We did make a change this year to the Misuse of Drugs Act, we lifted the penalties that would apply to someone, who for instance manufactured and supplied synthetic cannabis because our view is that we need to take a very hard line on those who manufacture and supply synthetics as a very strong signal for those who peddle ah… drugs in NZ. I take a very clear view – those who peddle misery need to face the consequences of that at the other end of the spectrum.”
Bridge: “What about methamphetamine? You can give a view on the court’s decision yesterday.”
Ardern: “I see methamphetamine as the epitome of misery in NZ.”
Bridge: “I know that, but should somebody who’s addicted to it get a reduced sentence just because they’re addicted?”
Ardern: “My view is those who supply and manufacture, those are the ones with an expectation there is a very hard line taken against. I’m absolutely clear on that.”
Bridge: “So, you disagree with the court’s decision? It sounds like you do.”
Ardern: “I… I… you can… Ryan, you know you cannot put me in that position. A court decision is a court decision.”
Bridge: “Absolutely, but you’re allowed to offer a view. You’re allowed to offer a view and you could change the law to reverse it, if you wanted to.”
Ardern: “And I’ve given you… ah… well… actually a law change in this case hasn’t occurred which triggered the Court of Appeal decision so let’s be clear on that. As I’ve said, what we actually increased was ah… the penalties that apply for synthetics, ah… the penalties that apply for the supply and manufacture of methamphetamine are exactly the same as they have been for… um… for some time now. But the Court of Appeal has made this decision.
But again, as… as I say, we need to be clear on manufacture and supply, there’s another discussion to be had on what do you do about those who aren’t manufacturing, aren’t supplying um… but are simply users ah… and in those cases – yes, you have seen us talking about things like ah… ah… rehabilitation and I want to come back to something…
Bridge: “On that point… on that point of rehabilitation…we’ll come back to that in a moment, but on rehabilitation, is this… or are you worried about the effect this is going to have on the… the number of rehab beds or places out there because there’s a huge shortage as it is…
Ardern: “Well generally….”
Bridge: “And this is only going to make that problem worse.”
Ardern: “Ryan you will know that… you will know that actually we’ve already identified we’ve had a shortage of rehabilitation ah… places, and that’s not a new issue, as soon as we came into government, we recognised that we’d been left with that issue.”
Bridge: “But this will make it worse, right?”
Ardern: “And so in the last budget…in the last budget we’ve substantially increased the funding um… to drug and alcohol rehabilitation. We put aside, for instance, an extra 200 million dollars to rebuild and extend facilities ah… and we’ve also boosted the funding for those existing services so that they can extend the number of places, community-based places, that they have available. Ah… in fact, you know, one of the things I’ve seen that’s quite successful ah… the drug and alcohol courts that exist in Auckland. They’re doing a great job of… ah… identifying those offenders who are repeatedly in our system because of addiction and actually treating the cause of the problem ah… through rehabilitation.”
Bridge: “Absolutely. I guess the question is whether there’s… whether there’s…”
Ardern: “I’ve seen those…”
Bridge: “…there’s enough of those around.”
Ardern: “It works, that’s why we funded them.”
Bridge: “It doesn’t seem like we are going to get an answer from you this morning so we’ll move onto light rail…”
Ardern: “Oh no… Ryan, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I just told you that we know there’s not enough and that’s why we put extra money in the budget and we’re currently building those places so…”
Bridge: “But that’s to keep up… with respect prime minister, that’s to keep up with demand that already exists. This change is going to mean that there is more demand on top of that. So, will there be extra money to compensate for the court’s decision?”
Ardern: “Ryan, a decision was made by the Court of Appeal, ah… basically in the last 48 hours, what I’m telling you is be… before that we had an issue with ah… drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Ah… we inherited an issue that we are working ah… as quickly as we can to fix… ah… and we’ve put, for instance, as I’ve said 200 million into building those extra bed spaces and we will keep doing that regardless of what the Court of Appeal has decided.”
But using the universal law of supply and demand, if there was no demand from methamphetamine users, suppliers would be wiped out.