Sydney (Australia), 22 mar (EFE).-supporters of legalizing marijuana in New Zealand have defied authorities with the placement of a dispensing machine of cannabis at a club in Auckland to a price similar to the black market.
The apparatus is similar to machines that sell “grass” therapeutic purposes in California (EE.)(UU.) and a gram of “marÃa” is achieved by NZ $20 ($16 or 12.3 euros).
Authorities allow, for the moment, that the dispenser still plugged in the club “The Daktory”, located in the West of Auckland, where is located the national organization for the reform of marijuana laws.
Initiative was adopted to avoid the danger that ran the partners when they had to buy the drugs in the streets, said last night at the President of that Corporation, Julian Crawford, TVOne television station to explain that since that they have the machine “overnight transactions have declined in several hundred”.
Plants and cannabis seeds are classified as class C in New Zealand drugs, which together with Australia are the countries with the highest rate of consumption of cannabis and amphetamine in the world, according to a study recently published in the journal The Lancet.
New Zealand law provides for a maximum penalty of three months in prison and a fine of about $400 (300 euros) by its consumption, while the cultivation and distribution is punishable with a maximum of eight years in prison and about 800 dollars (360 euros) sanction.
Synthetic marijuana was allowed in New Zealand until last year and was freely sold in shops neighborhood, tobacconists and specialised shops, as well as internet.
But Parliament approved a temporary ban for scientists to study the effects once devised several cases of complications in health supposedly related to the use of this substance.
Crawford pointed out that the dispensing machine is an example of how the sale of marijuana could regulate when it legalised.
Meanwhile, the police monitors facilities the club as “part of the normal routine” and “look closely” the situation.
“The Daktory” was opened in November 2008 and had thousands of members when its founder, Dakta Green, was imprisoned in 2011 by own, sell and allow your store to be used for drug consumption.
Club, which closed its doors and became the headquarters of the national organization for the reform of marijuana laws, reopened recently, although Green continues in prison.
Cannabis clubs are popular in the State of California, where the use of marijuana for therapeutic purposes is legal.
Since 2008 operating in California a few machines where the patient chooses the type of goods desired after verifying the identity of the mentioned through fingerprints.
In the Netherlands are known the “coffee shops”, where it is consumed the drug, although this European country’s Government been forced to transform into clubs closed with a maximum of 2,000 members and to those who may go only residents in the nation.
Existing since 1976, with the rules of operation of these Dutch establishment, which in the last decade have been reduced from about 1500 to 660, presented as a model regulation because it kept under control of drug use and reduced to a minimum the illegal traffic.
Marijuana is a controversial substance because it has therapeutic properties, but is also considered a drug with pernicious effects without medical use.
Demonstrators supporting the legalization of marijuana, last November in Canberra (Australia). EFE/file
