Party supports Values

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 10

Party supports Values

NZPA Tauranga With only five candidates standing in the General Election, the New Zealand Marijuana Party asks marijuana users to vote for the Values Party in other electorates. The Leader of the party, Mr Grant Bedford, of Tau-

i ranga, said that marijuana , users were also being asked I to vote for prohibition of al- [ coholi The Marijuana Party can- . didates would stand in three Auckland and two Wellington seats. , “One of our reasons for - supporting the Values Party

is that the legalisation of marijuana would make many of its conservation polices practicable,” he said. Mr Bedford said marijuana had many uses which could help reduce enivironmental damage.

But the Values Party candidate for Tauranga, Mr A. Neville, said that though Mr Bedford’s support was appreciated, the Values Party's reasons for supporting the legalisation of marijuana were vastly different.

"For one thing, we do not advocate the use of marijuana,” he said. "Rather, we feel that legalising the growing of marijuana for one’s own private use would take the criminal element out of the use of this drug. Ours is a law-and-orders stance.” | Just as prohibition of al-1 cohol in the United States! had produced the rise of the Mafia, criminal elements were coming into New Zealand and using marijuana as a stepping stone to harder drugs, he said. “The Values Party would still prohibit the growing of marijuana for purposes of distribution,” Mr Neville 'said.