VOTE YES 2020

At the beginning of 2020, our members voted to take a stance on the cannabis referendum because we collectively recognised that we had the power and the platform to look after young people, especially young Māori, who are being swept into the justice system. We recognised that we all wanted to support a common-sense approach to cannabis that focused on things that work like prevention, education and treatment for those who need it. The vision of this campaign was to empower students to vote yes in the cannabis referendum and in turn empower them to lead informed discussions within their communities on the issue and referendum. In order to do this, we had to make sure that young people and students were enrolled to vote, that they were empowered to vote YES themselves, and that they were empowered to have conversations with their friends and family too.

Our campaign was supported by VUWSA and YES2020 (a student led group focused on the cannabis referendum), and we were connected in with Just Speak, ActionStation, NZ Drug Foundation and Make it Legal, among other pro-YES organisations.