The new poll, conducted by UMR market research found 49% in favour of legalising cannabis, with 45% opposing the proposed legislation.
Commissioned by the Helen Clark Foundation and the New Zealand Drug Foundation – both supporters of legalising cannabis, the latest results are a stark difference from recent polls.
Just last week, the 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll showed a mere 35% supporting the referendum, with 53% opposing it. A Newshub poll in the past week also showed 50.5% would vote ‘no’, and just 37.9% would support the referendum.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, another strong supporter of cannabis legalisation, trusts in UMR’s polling results based on their track record in recent election results.
On the opposing side, Say Nope to Dope’s spokesman Aaron Ironside had the following to say:
It’s going against the trend of the national polls and our internal polling, which show a large gap between those in favour and those against, with a large majority against the legislation.
Ironside also mentioned that ‘we want people to be informed’ and that ‘this is an evidence-based campaign’. Yet our research shows their campaign is clearly manipulating figures and statistics.
He also claims that legalising cannabis would ‘open Pandora’s Box’. A box which Clark says has already been open ‘for probably 60 years’ now.
New Zealand is, frankly, one of the cannabis capitals of the world. It grows very easily here and up to 80 per cent of people will have used it in their lifetime. I’d really ask people to think about their vote and think about whether they themselves would want to be in the position that people using cannabis are – who are arrested and prosecuted and convicted – and whether they would want their children and grandchildren to be in that position.
More than 500,000 Kiwis use cannabis on a regular basis, despite it being illegal.
The war on drugs has failed.
It’s time to end cannabis prohibition.