New Zealand Is Now One Step Closer To Legalising Cannabis

Thanks to the NZ First, Labour & Greens' coalition deal , New Zealand is one step closer to legalising cannibis.

The Green Party have been fighting to legalise marijuana for over 20 years, and it looks like it might become a reality sooner than we thought.

According to Newshub, an email was sent out to Green Party delegates last night, which included "a referendum on legalising the personal use of cannabis by 2020, and more financial backing for drug and alcohol services."

So, potentially by 2020, kiwis will legalise recreational cannabis.

According to Greens' drug law reform policy, the party want to legalise cannibas for "personal use, including possession and cultivation."

NZ's next PM Jacinda Ardern has openly shared her support for decriminalising the plant and NZ First also support use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

NZ Drug Foundation's director Ross Bell has welcomed the news.

"Fundamentally for us, it's long overdue that New Zealand had a crack at its obsolete drug law. The law that's in place today, in 2017, was passed in 1975," he told Newshub.

"The reality is half the country's population have used cannabis and a lot of people get criminal convictions for that," he continued.

"What we know is that current approach where we try to criminalise those people that use drugs has done nothing to reduce drug use or drug harm."

"New Zealand is one of the highest users of cannabis in the world, so I think we need to do something differently - and putting that out to the public as to what something different looks like is, in 2017, only fair and reasonable."

Green MP Julie Anne Genter currently has a members’ bill before parliament, which would legalise access to cannabis products for kiwis suffering from terminal illness or any debilitating condition.

Medicinal use is likely to be legalised before cannabis is legalised for recreational use, which means those who need it will be able to access it before 2020.

 

A post shared by Julie Anne Genter (@julieannegenter) on Oct 6, 2017 at 6:15pm PDT

You can read more about Greens policy here.

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