Cameron Ilavsky
Danielle Kopp
Honors British and World Literature
October 31, 2020
Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, recently voted to legalize euthanasia. However, recent polls show that the odds of legalizing marijuana are not high.
In the preliminary vote, legalizing euthanasia won by a landslide, "65 percent voting in favor and 34 percent voting against". The marijuana vote was significantly closer, "53 percent voting against legalizing the drug for recreational use and 46 percent voting in favor". While this could still be won, it would take a significant leap.
However, this doesn't necessarily tell anything about the state of the country. New Zealand was in the process of a general election. One voter said that while these were important issues, and people should be voting on the referendums, the election was mainly won over by the votes about the current coronavirus epidemic.
Nick Smith, a conservative lawmaker, argues that since studies show that marijuana has been linked to "mental health problems, reduced motivation and educational achievement, and increased road and workplace deaths". Because of this, he was very welcoming of this current statistic.
Chloe Swarbrick, a liberal lawmaker, praised how New Zealand has handled the situation of drugs for years and believes that the law could be passed, as long as the special votes were counted. She said that she had expected a close result from the beginning, and assured everybody that nothing was yet set in stone.
In any case, these statistics are purely estimates, the final results for the referendums will be released on November 6th. Then, the actual laws for each will be put in place, potentially modifying how the justice system functions as is.
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