Dunne Peter: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Dunne Peter: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:614;Page:10497] 
6.  
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she stand by the commitment that she made in the confidence and supply agreement with United Future that “The government will not introduce legislation to change the legal status of cannabis.”? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: In the light of the study by the Christchurch school of medicine over the last 25 years which shows strong evidence that cannabis acts as a gateway to other drugs particularly among young heavy users will the Prime Minister agree that not only should the previous statement regarding no change in the legal status of the drug be honoured for the duration of this Government but also that other measures are required to further discourage young people from becoming involved in heavy cannabis usage; if so can she indicate what steps the Government is taking in that regard? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I think the Government would agree with the point made by the member. Of course the Associate Minister of Health Mr Anderton is in charge of developing policy in those areas and I am sure he is more than willing to work with the member on those matters. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Is the Prime Minister also aware of the comments made by Professor David Fergusson who led that study that because cannabis was illegal to buy people had to get involved in the illegal drug culture where they were offered other drugs and that the cannabis laws were not working and were maybe exacerbating wider drug use—comments that back up the professor’s submission to the Health Committee where he said one credible hypothesis for the gateway effect was that the gateway effect apparent for cannabis may be largely or solely the consequence of the legal status of cannabis; if she is aware of those comments what attention is she paying to them? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Oh Tiresias indeed! I think it is fair to say that the report indicates a difference between heavy users of cannabis and those who are occasional recreational users. Heavy use is defined in the study I think as use only once a week. The member may be surprised to learn that that is heavy use not occasional recreational use. I think the evidence is still fairly overwhelming that signals around legitimising the use of cannabis may well send very wrong signals to young people. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question I asked was specifically around the comments to do with the fact that cannabis law prohibition itself creates the gateway effect and I do not think that the Hon Mr Cullen speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister addressed that. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Well I do. I think he addressed the question very specifically. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Has the Government been told by Mr Dunne that should the Government with support from whatever quarter in this House it may arise support an attempt to legalise cannabis the United Future party would then withdraw its support or withdraw its undertaking on supply and confidence? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: The supply and confidence agreement between the Government and United Future is absolutely clear and specific. The Government will not make any moves to legalise cannabis in this term of Parliament. If any member introduces a member’s bill then all the members of the Labour Party will certainly have a free vote on that issue. I am quite confident that a number of members would vote one way and a number of members would vote another way on any such bill. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: With regard to the Christchurch clinical school study which shows that one of the key predictors of regular and heavy use of cannabis by youth was parental drug use does the Prime Minister accept the argument that decriminalising the use of cannabis for adults would effectively have no impact on the use of cannabis by young people? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: No I do not think that argument can be accepted. Clearly there is an effect here whereby adult behaviour will influence the behaviour of younger people and that of course applies not merely to cannabis but to all forms of drug and substance abuse including alcohol. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Can I just take it then that the Government never received from the United Future leader an understanding that should Government members as individuals support this issue on a free vote Mr Dunne would withdraw his supply and confidence undertaking with the Government; and is that the reason why Mr Dunne’s claims that he could not stop the Prostitution Reform Bill are so spurious as well? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I have no responsibility for the latter matter. All I can say is that Mr Dunne is a former member of the Labour caucus—an honour he shares with a number of party leaders in this House. He understands well unlike some parties in this Parliament—and this is a matter of record—that when the Labour caucus adopts a conscience vote it is a free vote and the caucus is not whipped unlike the National Party on a number of occasions.