MindFuel Blog

Guest blogger Trismegistus considers whether the Cannabis Referendum may have contributed to Labour loosing the 2023 election. Back in the 2020 election the New Zealand Labour party won a historic victory. They achieved an unprecedented outright majority, meaning that they could govern alone without needing the Green Party as a coalition partner. Then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was still basking in...

Cannabis possession discretion laws appear to benefit Pākehā most The 2019 law change that granted greater police discretion over cannabis possession charges has led to a significant drop in cannabis convictions, with Pākehā benefiting the most, according to recent reports. Despite an overall reduction in cannabis possession convictions, decriminalization advocates point to the fact that Pākehā convictions have dropped at...

The Thai government will distribute one million free cannabis plants to households across the nation in June to mark a new rule allowing people to grow cannabis at home, its health minister has said. Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced the move in a Facebook post on May 8th 2022 in which he expressed his intention for cannabis plants to be...

While American lobbyists were cunning enough to trick enough kiwi voters into voting marginally in favor of continuing our failed policy of cannabis prohibition, the Police were not so gullible. The Police know better than anyone that cannabis prohibition has failed and have demonstrated wisdom with the announcement today that they are axing their annual nationwide helicopter cannabis operations.This will...

A legal bid is underway to get the results of the cannabis referendum thrown out. A group of more than 350 people have filed papers in the High Court to void the vote on the Cannabis and Control Bill. The group claim poor and inaccurate information lead to confusion among voters. The papers also claim  also claim the Electoral Commission...

Destroying any hope among the yes campaign, special votes have tragically failed to flip the results of the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum. Recreational cannabis will remain prohibited and the harms associated with prohibition will continue in New Zealand for the foreseeable future, with 50.7 per cent voting “no” and 48.4 per cent voting “yes”. With the final tally of...

The New Zealand cannabis referendum preliminary results were released at 2pm today, with 46.1 percent voting to legally control cannabis, compared to 53.1 percent voting for continued cannabis Prohibition. But with almost half a million votes still to be counted, New Zealand will need to wait until next Friday for full and final results. Sources: The Herald, RNZ, Stuff.  

The cannabis legalisation and control referendum would pass if the vote was held today. The poll which was carried out this morning by market research company UMR and funded by the Helen Clark Foundationnd and the New Zealand Drug Foundation, found 49 per cent of respondents supported the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, while 45 per cent opposed it....

A growing majority of New Zealanders support legalizing cannabis for personal use, according to a new poll just three months from a national referendum. Helius Therapeutics commissioned the Independent Horizon Research survey of nearly 1600 Kiwis and found that 56 per cent of respondents plan to vote YES to legalizing cannabis for personal use in  the September 1st referendum. Way...

Coming into another cannabis harvest season in New Zealand and the government is once again missing out on capturing any revenue from the hundreds of thousands of cannabis sales about to take place on the black market, thanks to their continuation of the failed policy of prohibition. While cannabis legalization is no doubt coming to New Zealand, its coming very...

The Ministry of Health is holding information sessions on the medicinal cannabis scheme. Information sessions on proposals for the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme are being held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The sessions will be held as follows: Auckland, Monday 22 July and Tuesday 23 July Christchurch, Tuesday 30 July Wellington, Thursday 1 August Preference for attendance will be given to...

The details of a referendum to legalize cannabis - including whether its results will be binding - are set to be announced before the end of the year, Justice Minister Andrew Little has confirmed. Read more...

What could be better than an R18 restricted legal Cannabis market in New Zealand? We certainly can’t think of much. We all know prohibition and the war on cannabis failed, causing harm far greater than the herb they were supposed to be protecting us from. But what exactly do we need to do in order to achieve legal Cannabis here...