The National Addiction Centre supports a suggestion by ACT leader Don Brash that cannabis should be decriminalised.
Dr Brash says he thinks the drug causes no harm to anyone and prohibition is expensive and ineffective.
The National Addiction Centre says it considers cannabis to have a low to moderate public health risk, compared to alcohol which has a high risk.
NAC director Doug Sellman says cannabis should be decriminalised so its distribution can be regulated by the Government, instead of being controlled by criminals.
Professor Sellman says New Zealand needs to treat cannabis as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice one.
