“The appetite across the coalition [government] is for a localised market that does not glamorise the substance, but moves the trade from the shadows into the light where we can address potential harms,” says Swarbrick.
“Legal regulation poses the opportunity to allow those who’ve been marginalised… to engage in legal trade, and for those with dependency issues to receive help. Aotearoa New Zealand will not replace the black market with an unbridled free market, but instead create harm-reduction regulation.”