Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise in support of this bill. I want to just address what it's about and what it's not because ironically this bill is not about marijuana or cannabis.I don't particularly like cannabis—I don't like marijuana. I tried it once I got very hungry and I never did it again. I don't understand why people smoke it but a lot of people—and some of the members we've heard—say that it is beneficial. My personal experiences and preferences are hardly the point because if this bill is not about cannabis then it is about prohibition. There is no policy called cannabis but we are lawmakers. Our job in this House is to deal with policies and the policy in question is the prohibition on people who have serious painful illnesses on using cannabis.We have to ask ourselves as lawmakers has the prohibition on cannabis been effective? I'll give you the answer that I gave on the Government bill last night. You can analyse any policy by asking three simple questions: what's the intent is it effective and what are the side effects? Well the intent of banning people with illnesses from accessing medical cannabis is pretty clearly to stop them accessing medical cannabis.What of the effectiveness? We know from the number of people who are doing it and from police including former police officers in this Chamber that it is a highly ineffective prohibition because so many people are doing it. The objective is to stop people smoking cannabis; the effectiveness is almost zero. The people that want to do it are doing it.The unintended consequences are that people put themselves in danger dealing with criminal elements whose criminal sphere they fund by acquiring illicit cannabis and they receive a product that is made all the more dangerous by being underground than it need otherwise be. I can tell you—or at least I've heard—that most of the current suppliers don't follow the Consumer Guarantees Act and they don't often issue refunds. That is the circumstance in which so many people find themselves.The politics of this is very simple. This bill will pass tonight if we can find about half a dozen brave and thoughtful souls on the National Party benches. I put it to my colleagues in the National Party—well let me put it this way. I listened to Nikki Kaye's speech and I thought of something Richard Prebble once said to me: If you can't ride two horses at once you shouldn't be in the political circus." Well Nikki Kaye was riding those horses so far apart she just about hung drew and quartered herself.The National Party members need to think long and hard about this question: had the Labour Party—the evil Labour Party—not put up their piss-weak watered-down bill which will go halfway to where they'd like to get would they be voting for this bill tonight? I'd point out to members—SPEAKER: Order! People remonstrated with me yesterday for the use of language that might be common where I come from but is probably not appropriate here. I think the member just better be careful how he expresses himself.DAVID SEYMOUR: In fairness it's not common where I come from.If the Labour Party had not put up a weaker bill many more members on this side would be voting for it. That's the only difference. I'd put it to members on the National Party benches that you don't want to be found trying to ride two horses at once because sometimes you tear yourself apart.What you want to be doing is asking the simple question: is the policy of prohibition a successful policy; if not would New Zealand be a better country if we ended that policy for people with chronic illnesses and would it be a better policy if people could acquire what they are acquiring already through much safer much more legitimate means that did not lead to children in this country growing up in households funded by the proceeds of crime that exists only because of prohibition? That is the question: could you make New Zealand a better place by taking a small step to end that prohibition tonight?If members on the National Party benches agree with me it takes only half a dozen to bravely and thoughtfully cross the floor. Try it fellas. It's exhilarating. I've done it—you feel like Julie Andrews skipping across the floor. You can make a difference for New Zealand and have a great time doing it. That's the best appeal I can make to my colleagues in the National Party. I hope to see half a dozen of you in the Ayes lobby tonight. Thank you Mr Speaker."