Guidelines for medicinal cannabis
J A Harris made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was partially successful.
From: J A Harris
Dear New Zealand Police,
Please provide any guidelines, police instructions, police manual chapters, policies, information papers or other resources concerning medical cannabis and how this should be handled by Police.
Yours faithfully,
J A Harris
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A Harris
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request below, received by Police on 3 December 2022.
Your reference number is IR-01-22-37540.
Please note, as per section 2 of the OIA, the three weeks between 25 December 2022 and 15 January 2023 do not count as working days. You can expect a response to your request on or before 20 January 2023 unless an extension is needed.
Ngā mihi
Catherine
Ministerial Services
Police National Headquarters
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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe JA
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act
request, received by New Zealand Police on 3 December 2022.
Ngā mihi,
Penni
Penni Davenport | Senior Advisor
Ministerial Services | Policy & Partnerships | PNHQ
===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately
From: J A Harris
Dear Ministerial Services,
Thank you for your response.
Can you please confirm:
- this is the most recent and in force version of this document
- there are no other documents, including training materials or courses, operational bulletins, or other material which cover procedure, policy, or law relating to medicinal cannabis
- that Police have no formalised procedure for dealing with patients who have been prescribed medicinal cannabis not for palliative reasons; or materials relating to that subject
- whether any formalised procedure for the third point is in development or has been identified as required
- details of how Police identify where gaps in procedure and Police Manual such as this exist
- or if such procedure or documents as described in point three do exist, copies of along with an explanation as to why they were not initially included
For clarity, the third point refers to patients who have been prescribed a cannabis product via a GP or specialist, for any condition which is not palliative, under the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme came into effect on 1 April 2020 with the commencement of the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Regulations 2019.
Yours sincerely,
J A Harris
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Morning JA
I have forwarded your questions to the work group. A response is more than likely going to be sent through in the new year as we close down for the Christmas holiday period today. We reopen 9 January 2023, so unless I get a response this morning you will not get a response until after that time.
I hope you have a nice break over the holiday season.
Ngā mihi,
Penni
Penni Davenport | Senior Advisor
Ministerial Services | Policy & Partnerships | PNHQ
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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe JA
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982 request below, received by Police on 22 December 2022.
Your reference number is IR-01-23-449.
Please note, as per section 2 of the OIA, the three weeks between 25 December 2022 and 15 January 2023 do not count as working days. You can expect a response to your request on or before 10 February 2023 unless an extension is needed.
Ngā mihi
Catherine
Ministerial Services
Police National Headquarters
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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act
request, received by New Zealand Police on 22 December 2022.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with this
response.
Ngā mihi
Dylan
Dylan
Advisor | Ministerial Services | Police National Headquarters
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===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately
References
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From: J A Harris
Dear Ministerial Services,
I asked "5. details of how Police identify where gaps in procedure and Police Manual
such as this exist." A response was provided which states "This part of your request is refused pursuant to s18(e) OIA as the documentation alleged
to contain this information does not exist or cannot be found"
Can you please confirm this means there are no procedures in place to identity gaps in Police procedure or content of the Police Manual?
Can you please further confirm, in relation to the original request, that as Police have no procedure relating to medical cannabis patients this means a patient prescribed medical cannabis will suffer no action from Police? For example, where a patient is consuming their medical cannabis and Police receive a complaint or a Police employee detects the use of the cannabis?
Yours sincerely,
J A Harris
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Good morning
I have forwarded your query to the workgroup that prepared the response and asked that they contact you as soon as possible.
Kind regards, Michelle
Ministerial Services - Police National Headquarters
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From: J A Harris
Dear Ministerial Services,
Thanks Michelle.
I do have a further request to add which is
Please provide details or copies of any "Panui" content or any other Police bulletin, Police instruction, email, newsletter, training, or other internal communication which references medicinal cannabis.
I find it very hard to believe a major law change involving controlled drugs has apparently had no communication or instruction given to frontline staff to ensure it is managed appropriately.
Yours sincerely,
J A Harris
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request below.
Your reference number is IR-01-23-6831.
You can expect a response to your request on or before 4 April 2023 unless an extension is needed.
Ngā mihi
Michelle
Ministerial Services - Police National Headquarters
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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982 request below, received by Police on 6 March 2023
Your reference number is IR-01-23-6990.
You can expect a response to your request on or before 3 April 2023 unless an extension is needed.
Ngā mihi
Julián (He/Him)
Ministerial Services Advisor
NZ Police National Headquarters Wellington
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From: J A Harris
Dear Ministerial Services,
I note that this request(s) is (are) now overdue:
IR-01-23-6990 3 April 23
IR-01-23-6831 4 April 23
While I appreciate there has been a public holiday, these due dates were BEFORE that holiday. Additionally, Police have a clear pattern of failing to respond to OIA and other information requests in a timely and appropriate fashion. Once again, I will complain to the Ombudsman.
I would point out you are required to have a response to the requester by the due date, not just ready on the due date - so any consultation or other approval activity before it can be released must be completed by then.
I respectfully suggest that Police need a better tracking system and some accountability from the workgroups who prepare these responses.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
J A Harris
J A Harris left an annotation ()
Complaint has been made to the Ombudsman about Police's continued tardiness with and apathy for OIA requests.
Police strongly resist any form of accountability, which is really disappointing for a group who hold so much power.
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act
request, received by New Zealand Police on 6 March 2023.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with this
response.
Ngā mihi
Dylan
Dylan
Advisor | Ministerial Services | Police National Headquarters
[1]wordmark transparent
===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately
References
Visible links
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act
request, received by New Zealand Police on 7 March 2023.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with this
response.
Ngā mihi
Dylan
Dylan
Advisor | Ministerial Services | Police National Headquarters
[1]wordmark transparent
===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately
References
Visible links
J A Harris left an annotation ()
I remain unsatisfied with this response. It's clear Police either a) are deliberately being obtuse in their misunderstanding of the question; or b) simply do not bother to update their guidance, which officers follow when they do their jobs and go out into the world with powers of arrest, when the law changes - which is quite frankly disturbing.
However, it's also clear that this particular avenue will bear no further fruit.
I would note that this lack of guidelines has in fact led to an incident in April 2023 in which a patient's prescribed medical cannabis has been inappropriately taken by Police.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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J A Harris left an annotation ()
It's really concerning the only material Police have appears to be very outdated and very specific. Medi inal cannabis has been legal in this country long enough that Police have had time to develop formal procedure and training around it. If this hasn't happened, where does that leave thousands of medicinal cannabis patients who are possessing and using their legally prescribed medication? What do Police do in those situations - it's unacceptable this would be up to untrained individual front line officers.
Alternatively, if it does exist - why did it not get included in this request?
Link to this