THC News December 2016 | Page 4

Candidates all support Stronge cannabis stance N ational are the only party not supporting New Zealanders’ rights to medical cannabis, in the run-up to the December 3 Mt Roskill by-election. Of the six candidates who attended the “Meet The Candidates” public meeting in Lynfield midway through the campaign, National’s Parmjeet Parmar stood alone in insisting that current government policy on medical cannabis was the right course. Fully supportive: Labour’s Michael Wood tells the Cannabis Party’s Brandon Stronge he wants to see the law changed It was the only chance the public had to quiz all the candidates, though the two main parties were able to argue their policy at various other preelection meetings - to which the other candidates were not invited. The first of those to happen during the by-election campaign had seen a heated exchange between Labour’s Michael Wood and the husband of his main opponent, Dr Parmar. There was more drama at the Lynfield meeting on November 20, which was filmed by TVNZ and TV3. Dr Parmar’s husband, who had been escorted from the building by security during the first meeting, was again there on the front row. He and his allies were less than 2m from the candidates and were doing their best to put her rivals off when they were speaking. The biggest round of applause of the night would come when Dr Parmar’s husband was again spoken to by security about his conduct. It was the National supporters who were openly dirisive of the policies put forward by Cannabis Party candidate Brandon Stronge.