The Green Party supports evidence-based, compassionate drug law reform that reduces harm. Drugs are a health, housing, employment, and education issue and criminalising people doesn’t solve any of those problems.

Both legal and illegal drugs can cause harm, especially if used to excess or at a young age. Our social and legal response can either increase or decrease that harm. We

know prohibition fuels organised crime and causes far more damage than it prevents.

Many people in Aotearoa use drugs, but a lack of sensible regulation means people put their lives at risk by using substances of unknown potency from unknown sources. At the same time, open advertising and sponsorship rules normalise and glorify Aotearoa’s unhealthy drinking

culture, and communities often don’t have enough say over alcohol sales in their area.

The Green Party supports a “yes” vote in the referendum to legalise and control cannabis, and has worked to ensure the proposed law is a world-class public health response. In Government, we also passed important drug law reform, so people found using or possessing illegal drugs are supported into recovery rather than locked up.

The Green Party is focused on reducing drug harm.

We will:

  • Support the legalisation and regulation  of personal  use of cannabis in ways that reduce harm to users, their families, and communities, as provided by the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.

  • Legalise and regulate drug checking services, such as Know Your Stuff, that currently operate in a legal grey area at events, and fund these services throughout the community.

  • Increase health and rehabilitation support for people who need it.

  • Expand programmes such as Te Ara Oranga, focused on decreasing demand for substances by improving peoples’ lives through housing, employment, and education.

  • Significantly reduce alcohol advertising and sponsorship of sporting and cultural events, while introducing a replacement funding programme in line with the recommendations in the 2014 Ministerial Forum on Alcohol Advertising and Sponsorship.

  • Remove the ability of big alcohol and supermarket corporates to challenge Local Alcohol Policies.

  • Require health warning labels on all legal drugs, including alcohol.

 

Read more about our green vision for Aotearoa