Letters: Cannabis, cheap labour, border controls and public transport

The up-coming cannabis referendum stirs debate. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

How to stop it
Professor Mary Cannon (August 3) explains what we already know: Cannabis is harmful to young people. She does not explain what we do not know: How to stop young people using it. Making it illegal has not worked, and the evidence suggests in jurisdictions where legal the harm is less. Seems to me the biggest danger in New Zealand is the gangs will simply switch to dealing more dangerous drugs, and lawyers will stand guard on their human rights. Perhaps the good professor of psychiatry could explain why so many people don't care enough about themselves to avoid danger and harm? I can make some suggestions. 1) The rich have bought their houses, so they can never hope to own one. 2) The rich get their money for near-nothing, courtesy of the banks, which are only to happy to create debt out of thin air and send their vulgar profits to Australia. 3) We automate everything instead of giving ordinary people thoroughly dull but eminently suitable jobs to keep them occupied.
Dennis N Horne, Howick

Impact on the unborn
With regard to the referendum on cannabis legalisation, it behoves me to ask how much research has been done on marijuana use during pregnancy and how it impacts the health and development of the foetus? We already have high numbers of young people with FASD through the consumption of alcohol by pregnant mothers. It is a massive problem. What further damage can be done by adding marijuana into this mix. If it is legalised it will be readily available throughout the country at premises licensed to sell. It's a frightening prospect. I would hate to see New Zealand become similar to Amsterdam and areas of Vancouver where being "stoned" is normalised and legal.
Sue White, Hobsonville

Recipe for disaster
Mary Cannon's article about the harm cannabis causes to young brains is critical for all politicians and naysayers to contemplate before they vote. And the cartoonist, Tom Scott, warned years ago about the lethal cocktail created when alcohol and cannabis are combined. A recipe for disaster for future dreams and a spiral downwards for the entire family. So who stands to gain from all this grief?
Mary Tallon, Morningside

Family counts cost
My wife and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in January. We are having a big family reunion for the occasion. My daughter wants to come from the UK for the event, but quarantine accommodation costs prohibit this. It seems particularly cruel to deny our whanau a right to gather with an extra expense like this. Her boss in the UK has already allowed her to work from the quarantine hotel so as not to eat into her leave entitlement. Such kindness!
Tom Hunter, Kaeo

Reliance on cheap labour
This epidemic resulting in strict border controls has highlighted the fact that there has been a huge reliance on cheap labour from overseas to fill less-skilled jobs. The Government has signalled that jobs should, wherever possible, be filled by New Zealanders and this is paramount considering the number of unemployed we will have. It is also very obvious that as the numbers at our borders increase, so does the danger of the virus entering the community. Employers who mainly use immigrant workers to prop up their businesses only benefit, and this needs a reset. It's really a matter of is the Government here for all or just those in business.
Reg Dempster, Albany

Arrogant response
Auckland Transport's response to the problems of top-ups for bus users was frustratingly familiar in its culture of arrogance. Yes, you can top up at train stations, great for train users, but that is of little use if you are nowhere near them trying to catch a bus (like 70 per cent of Auckland) ). If you are stuck at the end of Lincoln Rd, for example, the nearest top-up (Swanson train station) is 3km away. The number of handy dairies able to sell top-ups, which was great, has been slashed and even if you have data it still takes a staggering "up to 72 hours" to load on to your card, so that's of no use if you are stuck. My cellphone has - for years - had a freephone automated top-up service (2degrees) where you put in your phone number and pay by credit card and are instantly good to go. Why HOP cannot offer this type of technology is perplexing. Given the lack of options it would at least help if they could reflect how difficult it can be for bus users caught out without sufficient funds miles away from available sources, and attempt to solve the problem instead of telling us, as usual, how awesome they are.
Sam Cunningham, Henderson

New solutions needed
Normal transmission resumed after the grizzling couple return from a break. After a couple of weeks reading more balanced comments and opinions it's back to anything Labour does is bad and National are okay. These morning interviews are a classic example. Judith Collins gets a soft interview saying how they have all the answers but not once pressed on what those answers are. Then a longer much more aggressive interview with Jacinda Ardern which [Mike Hosking] opened by saying it was the daftest policy he has ever heard. Collins' smug "I know best" attitude is rarely questioned and she is allowed to waffle on unchallenged about her "strong team" and the myth that National are best-positioned to run the economy without giving any real policy. Obviously there is going to be severe fallout from the pandemic but National seem to think that they can solve the problems by just building more roads and tunnels. The foreseeable future will be much different from the past, but your commentators keep thinking past practices will solve new problems.
Garry Bond, Hastings

Successful military policy
It is now 75 years since two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in August 1945. We are regularly told that such weapons are destabilising, that the Doomsday Clock is just seconds away from midnight, that nuclear proliferation makes nuclear war inevitable. History tells a very different story. Now there are at least nine nations with nuclear weapons, yet none has used them in anger in the last three-quarters of a century. Against all expectations, the Cold War never became a nuclear war. So what are the factors that influence a leader considering a pre-emptive nuclear strike to keep his finger off the big red button? Mutually Assured Destruction has been much derided as being MAD. In fact it has been the most successful military policy in modern history. Not a single nuclear weapon has ever been used by a nation against another nation with nuclear weapons. Ask yourself: would US President Truman have ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki if Japan had been capable of nuking San Diego and Seattle in response? Of course not. The fear of nuclear retaliation makes starting a nuclear war unattractive. The argument "why do we need nukes if they are hardly ever used?" misses the point of them. Nukes are used every day - for deterrence. For the first time in history, nukes make starting the war personally and immediately dangerous for the leadership, another powerful disincentive for starting a nuclear war. It may seem counterintuitive but nuclear weapons have made the world a safer place. For most countries the death toll in international wars has dropped dramatically since nukes were invented. In the 75 years up to the end of 1945 about 28,500 New Zealand soldiers lost their lives in action in foreign wars, mostly fighting in wars directed by superpowers. In the 75 years since then only about 100 NZ soldiers have died in this way. The wars are now smaller and regional. Nukes have ended the era of unlimited warfare between powerful countries. I applaud those who wish to rid the world of nukes, but those folk have to produce an alternative, credible mechanism that will stop the powerful countries warring with each other. Nuclear deterrence is all about guaranteed retaliation after suffering a first strike. Whether we like it or not, nukes are here to stay because they are the central pillar for the major powers' defence strategy.
Andrew Tichbon, Green Bay

Short & sweet

On border costs
Border arrivals who refuse a Covid test should receive a bill up-front for the cost of their expensive extra isolation costs. This is not a time for pussy-footing around.
Pamela Russell, Orakei

On the Blues
Whilst I, and I suspect many others, are often bemused by the rulings of the referee and match officials, they have not succeeded in spoiling the Aotearoa rugby competition. We have witnessed some splendid games with outstanding individual performances. In particular the Blues have at last produced consistent form with the captain and the brothers Ioane to the fore. The projected final against the Crusaders is an exciting prospect.! Allez les Bleus.
Peter Clapshaw, Remuera

On spending waste
At Northcote we have a family of six, with one on the way, staying in a taxpayer-funded, one-room motel. Five kilometres away at Belmont, Ngati Whatua o Orakei have about 20 well-built, three-bedroom, ex-Navy houses on very pleasant quarter-acre sections empty for two years, awaiting townhouse redevelopment. One has been vandalised. All they need is the water and power reconected. Is this lunacy or what?
Bruce Tubb Belmont, Takapuna

0n bias
TV1's Jack Tame consistently commits the mortal sin of an intended unbiased interviewer, by showing his political bias. Aggressively interrupting Judith Collins, soft listening to the Labour Finance Minister.
Hylton Le Grice, Remuera

Thanks in order
I would like to thank David Goldsmith (from Christchurch) for starving himself for three weeks outside the Aotearoa Parliament to try to wake up sleepy New Zealanders and their useless politicians to the climate emergency. Thank you David! I hope you are recovering well from your three weeks of hunger. I know I couldn't do it - at least I don't think so, despite my realisation of how serious the climate crisis is for all life on Earth.
Genevieve Forde, Whangaparaoa