New Zealanders will vote on whether cannabis should be legalised for personal use at 2020 election

The Government has confirmed there will be a binding referendum on legalising cannabis at the 2020 general election.

A short time ago the Justice Minister Andrew Little told reporters, “The Cabinet decision is that it will be held at the 2020 general election, the agreement is that it will be binding, there’s a bit of detail still to be worked through but we’re telling the Electoral Commission that’s when it will be”.

“We have made the decision that we’re not going to use the citizen assembly process for policy development largely because the decision is quite late in the process so we won’t be using that mechanism in terms of a public engagement we will have other ways of getting the public debate going.”

Mr Little is expecting there will also be a referendum on the Act MP David Seymour’s assisted dying euthanasia bill at that time too.

He says the Government has not yet decided if it will also hold a third referendum on the MMP threshold at the next election.
READ MORE: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-zealanders-vote-whether-cannabis-should-legalised-personal-use-2020-election