CANNABIS COMES TO A HEAD IN TE TAI HAUAURU BY-ELECTION

The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP) says it will stand a
candidate in the by-election seat Tariana Turia expects to win in her
bid to return to Parliament.

Tariana Turia had hoped to take the seat unopposed and had pledged
support for core ALCP issues in hopes of getting the pro-cannabis
group to back away from plans to put a candidate up against her.

But the ALCP says her pledge of "passive support" is not enough and
that the issue of cannabis decriminalisation is an important Maori
issue.

Party Leader Michael Appleby said "passive support in Parliament for
law reform has simply failed to deliver community wellbeing, justice
and respect," and that active advocacy is required.

Maori bear the brunt of criminalisation policy, he said in a
statement, "arrested and convicted at four times the rate of Non
Maori, but few are apparently ready to come forward and firmly
advocate for sensible, equitable harm minimisation.

"The government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars building
prisons, instead of recognising that criminalisation is unnecessarily
and tragically producing the criminals to fill them," he said.