Australia’s Help End Marijuana Prohibition party secures 141,500 first preference Senate votes or 1.9 per cent of the national vote

The Brisbane Times reports….It’s the party’s best result since being registered in 2010 and is a huge jump in support from the 2016 election when the party entered a joint ticket with the Sex Party in several states and received 106,000 votes.

Speaking from the Hemp, Health and Innovation expo in Sydney the party’s president Michael Balderstone said he was happy with the results given the advertising spend of bigger parties and they would probably make the party take the next election “a bit more seriously.”

I’m very pleasantly surprised but not totally,” he said.
“It’s quite a big increase, doubled our vote in some spots.
“[Next time] we might attract better candidates.
“We’re struggling to get people to put their hands up because you become a bit of a target, not everyone is an unemployed hippy like me.”
State-by-state the result is more surprising.

In NSW HEMP secured 2.2 per cent of the primary vote, putting it two spots ahead of United Australia.
In WA it has secured 1.66 per cent of the vote, just ahead of Palmer’s 1.6 per cent.

Mr Balderstone, who is also president of the Hemp Embassy in the small north-east NSW town of Nimbin, said HEMP had spent “f–k all” on the campaign.

“We had to scratch to get the money together to put someone in every state because its $4000 in every state and we did the Northern Territory as well,” he said.
“We did a bit of online work but we didn’t spend any money on advertising or anything.
“We don’t have any money.”
He said it was the party’s messages on roadside drug testing and changing laws around cannabis use that was cutting through to a nation that was “waking up” to cannabis.
“We feel really bullied by the roadside drug testing, it’s become a nightmare for cannabis users. It’s so unfair, it stays in our system so long,” he said.

“It’s impossible to introduce a meaningful medical cannabis program when you can’t drive, no one is allowed to drive, even the people who are getting legal medical cannabis now.
“I think people are sick of cannabis being bunched in with all the other illegal drugs, which are so different.
“We’re a dried herb and they’re all chemicals pretty much or certainly processed.”
“Medical cannabis is happening everywhere and we’re just getting left behind.”
Source:  https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-election-2019/hemps-grassroots-campaign-hot-on-heels-of-palmer-s-60-million-ad-barrage-20190519-p51p0n.html

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