A Doctors Take
Kia ora. As Hues of Green moves out of our campaigning phase and into our people phase, we wanted to take a look at how various people, coming from various corners of the community, feel about cannabis. To this end we have reached out to people within the community and hope to include as many walks of life as we can to portray a fair and honest discussion amongst the people.
Today’s response comes from a medical doctor working at one of Aotearoa’s biggest hospitals. With credentials of MBChB and BSc their ideas come from both personal and professional experiences. For fear of professional repercussions, this individual will remain anonymous.
How were you introduced to cannabis, and were your early experiences positive or negative?
I had very negative views of cannabis growing up. I have a brother who used cannabis daily, from a very young age, which very much negatively affected his life. This meant I never really used it at all.
You changed your opinion from a hard no to a yes. What were your original reasons for voting no? Either from a personal or a professional experience.
Personally, I saw firsthand how addiction has impacted people around me. Professionally, when I worked on the respiratory ward I met a very young man (early 30s) who died of lung cancer due to smoking cannabis. Cannabis smoking has been shown to have an increased risk in lung cancer with one joint of cannabis having an approximate toxicity of one packet of cigarettes.
What was the main factor for changing your vote?
I tried to have an open mind to ensure I was informed of the facts rather than voting off my personal experience. We all know cannabis is harmful, especially to young people. However, we weren’t voting to normalise cannabis… it is already normal in our society. But the reality is, one in five Maori males in NZ will be incarcerated in their lifetime. We need to stop Maori from being adversely affected by drug offences that aren’t being handed out to others at the same rate.
Other important reasons for me to vote yes include safer access, more education and knowledge around cannabis, and better intervention.
Hues of Green Summary.
You can gauge from the above responses that our doctor is not at all supporting cannabis. From both their personal and professional experiences, they make it clear it is not for them and is indeed harmful. One of the most common issues Hues of Green encountered during our #voteyes campaign was that changing people’s minds who have had negative personal experiences was nigh on impossible.
It is promising, despite their personal views, that our doctor was able to see the hypocrisies in how our current laws are applied, and recognise that cannabis is already normalised in our society. To us, this shows the maturity in their thought process and the willingness to look at evidence with an open mind. These kinds of people, who don’t enjoy or support cannabis but who voted yes anyway, are the most integral in moving this discussion into the light. Bravo, Doc!
You can tell your story too. Get in touch with the team at Hues of Green.