The National Addiction Centre director backs an attempt to investigate laws around the sale of alcohol and their impact on Maori, saying the proliferation of liquor outlets in recent years is "disappointing''.
South Auckland Maori warden David Ratu is asking the Waitangi Tribunal to investigate liquor outlets in areas of deprivation, and near kura kaupapa (Maori language immersion schools), kohanga reo and marae, as a matter of urgency.
Centre head, Christchurch-based University of Otago professor Doug Sellman, said he understood David Ratu had received "really good advice'' from some of the country's leading experts, and it was disappointing the focus was on legalising cannabis, rather than looking at the importance of having stricter rules around alcohol.
The Government incurred about $7.8billion in alcohol harm-related costs every year.
"I always think it's the police and the Maori wardens that know the best [what the impact of alcohol is],'' he said.
"We are quite disappointed in many ways that the country has sort of been captured by cannabis legalisation.
"There's so much more harm from alcohol than there is from cannabis, or ever will be caused by cannabis.''
The number of outlets across the country had proliferated since 2010, he said.
"It's putting a cap on the number of outlets in New Zealand. It's out of control.''
The Waitangi Tribunal makes recommendations on claims brought by Maori relating to legislation, policies, actions or omissions of the Crown that are alleged to breach the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi.
The work Mr Ratu was doing was important because it was "kind of keeping it on the agenda'', Prof Sellman said.
Reasons why Maori were disproportionately affected by alcohol addiction were "very complex'' and "not genetic'', but due to environmental disadvantages that Maori, living in a colonised country, faced.
Community groups might speak at alcohol licence hearings, but they tended to be naive and "not sure how those processes go''.
"It's ... a fraught system and an unfair system.''
He was unsure of the number of liquor outlets in Dunedin, but said that as with other places, there were "just far too many''.
Otago public law expert Prof Andrew Geddis said he was unsure whether the tribunal had been asked to look into Maori and alcohol before, but said issues such as the treatment of Maori in the justice system and steps to combat Maori recidivism had been considered.
