Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party Analysis

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP) is the only party which has contested for a place in Parliament in every single General and By-election since MMP began in New Zealand in 1996 (Cannabis.org.nz). Their ideology is relatively straightforward; ‘The ALCP exists to legalise cannabis for recreational, spiritual, medicinal and industrial purposes’. They are also firm believers of peace and justice, creating a balance between the power of the state and the power of the people. The environment weighs in on their ideals heavily as well, this is why some members have made the migration over to the Green party in recent years. They have ten core principles which play a part in their political choices; Truth, freedom, justice, peace, ecology, commerce, …show more content…
This means that they have always been on the edge of Parliament, without managing to secure any party seats within. They are also a party which is classed as a single issue party (Bryce Edwards). Rather than having wide ideals, like the majority of the major parties, single issue parties focus their efforts into a singular public issue. In the case of the ALCP, their policy is the liberation of drug laws, more simply the legalisation of marijuana. Their policy isn’t just legalising marijuana, come one, come all, so to speak. More thought than expected has gone into their sole policy (Cannabis.org.nz). The goals of the ALCP policy consists of; possession of cannabis by adults without fear of prosecution, treating cannabis in a similar manner to alcohol or tobacco (restricted 18), prior cannabis convictions to be quashed, marijuana to become available at a medicinal level and enabling the production of hemp bio-fuels. They plan to enforce this policy by meeting the 5% threshold Parliament holds over them (lawsociety.org.nz). Not only does their policy have specificity, it also has objectives. The largest of them is to reduce the amount of crime, with marijuana being legal there will be substantially less ‘minor’ inferences. Another objective focuses on the health and medicinal aspect of marijuana, having it available as a holistic treatment option. Finally, the policy has a large …show more content…
Only having one policy has not been the reason behind the party’s hindrances but, it shows that the ALCP are persistent and dedicated to their cause, which is what many want to see in a political party, a solid plan for the future. The ALCP has put a lot of thought into the future, this can be seen on their website. Although they are frequently unsuccessful, the ALCP’s voices are still being heard, as the elections are a serviceable medium for publicising their views and opinions and this has been for the most, beneficial. After researching the ALCP’s policy more in depth, you can see that liberating drug laws is a huge part of what they stand for but they are also very people and environment orientated (cannabis.org.nz). Not only are they concerned with the legalising of the drug to avoid prosecution, they also want prior convictions to be quashed, which shows they care about all the people who feel they have been wrongly prosecuted. Also, the ALCP wants marijuana to be available as a medicinal treatment as many people in the past have been aided hugely by using marijuana as a medical treatment. The ALCP also want the money the cannabis will produce once legalised to go back to the population on New Zealand, not just kept up high out of reach. The environment too is very important to the ALCP. This is shown by the