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Make It Legal New Zealand 2020

  • This is it - Vote Yes!

      16 October 2020
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    The last day to vote in the cannabis referendum is tomorrow (Saturday).

    Its a really close run thing and we will need every single vote to get over the winners line.

    We need your vote.

    And we need the votes of your friends and family.

    We could win or lose this by just a handful of votes.

    Never before have you been able to make as much of a difference as you will this election.

    Please - if you haven't voted yet - get to the booth:

    https://vote.nz/voting/ways-you-can-vote/find-a-voting-place-on-a-map/

    And if you have voted - check in with your friends and family to see if they need help getting to a booth, or making their mind up.

    Thank you all hugely for your support through this campaign.

    Your support has meant we were able to run a much bigger campaign than we ever thought we could run. We reach around 2 million people a week and engage with 3,000 comments each day!

    Thank you.

    We will Make It Legal!

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  • One week to go to Make It Legal

      11 October 2020
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    This is it. We are at the election and your donation has made it happen. We cannot thank you enough for your help (big hugs and kisses).

    Make It Legal are reaching around 2 million people each week on social media and responding to an average of 3,000 comments per day! Whew!

    Our team of dedicated volunteers are working hard, and we will reveal who they are after the election so you can buy them cream doughnuts and make them a nice coffee to say thank you!

    But voting is happening right now and already over 500,000 people have voted in the cannabis referendum.

    They will be the eager supporters - and over the coming week the less decisive voters will be making their decision.

    We need every vote. Its such a tight referendum and there is every chance we could win or lose by just a handful of votes.

    Please vote as soon as possible.

    And please make sure all your friends and family vote as well.

    If you know anyone who may be voting no, or unsure - take the time to get in touch with them.

    They may have questions to ask...

    or maybe they just need someone to talk things through with.

    You could be the difference between a yes and a no.... and that one vote may be the difference between a win or a loss. That's how close it is!

    If you need information about how to vote go to https://vote.nz/

    If you need help answering questions - contact WeCan@MakeItLegal.nz or visit our Facebook page to ask questions or get info.

    We will be posting the preliminary results on the 30th Oct as soon as the Electoral Commission announce them.

    And after we know we have won (final results on the 6th Nov) we will be swinging into action to make sure the Bill goes to Select Committee; and helping people make a submission.

    We will be there right to the end, thanks to you and the support you have given us.

    We have the BEST supporters. Ever.

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  • Please help Make It Legal extend our campaign!

      12 September 2020
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    To extend our campaign for the four week election period postponement we need another $25,000.

    That could be $25 from 1,000 people or $1,000 from 25 people.

    Your support means we can reach the rest of New Zealand to educate and encourage the yes vote.

    What will legalisation mean?

    A report released this week showed legalisation would net the Government $640 million per year. $675m a year that could be used for health services. (Other levies would add up to get to over a billion per year in revenue.)

    Health interventions under legalisation could see the number of cannabis users with long-term health conditions drop by between 4600 and 5900, and a reduction in the number of users with mental health diagnoses of between 6500 and 7800.

    That would see fewer cannabis-related hospitalisations, fewer users leaving school without qualifications, and an increase in employability along with a $280 to $380 increase in annual incomes.

    https://www.berl.co.nz/sites/default/files/2020-09/Evidence-to-inform-a-regulated-cannabis-market-June-2020-PROACTIVE-FINAL.pdf

    The latest polls have the yes vote at 49.5% - so close! Help us make the final push to get legalisation over the line.

    For more information about donations and what we spend it on check out our website: https://www.makeitlegal.nz/

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  • Election Date Changed

      18 August 2020
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    Support Make It Legal!

    You may have heard that the election has been moved from 19th September to 17th October because of Covid-19.

    That's great news and scary news for us!

    Its great that we will have an extra 4 weeks to convince people to vote yes because we know that when people find out whats in the Bill they are more likely to vote YES. More time means more people we can reach.

    But its a bit scary too... I will get to that in a minute...

    The Make It Legal campaign has gathered 37,000+ followers on Facebook across all demographics 18-65+, male and female; as well as over 2,500 followers on Instagram and Twitter. You have probably seen our messages, which reach around 1 million people per week educating people on what’s in the Bill, the rationale behind legal regulation and even basic civics education like how do I vote, and how are laws made. Our volunteer team of moderators manages around 5,000 comments per month, and we have around 2,700 post shares each week.

    The delay in the election date is a bit scary. We have always been a grassroots volunteer campaign running on the smell of an oily rag. It took us years to raise the money to run this campaign, and now we suddenly have to find the money to campaign for 4 weeks longer than we thought.

    Can you help us keep this amazing social media campaign going?

    With your support we can continue to reach 1 million people a week with our messages.

    We don't know what we will do if we can't raise the money. We will have to wind the campaign down early - weeks before the election - and lose crucial percentages of the votes we need to win the referendum.

    Please help us to Make It Legal - On October 17th!

    Every vote counts.

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  • 8 weeks to go!

      22 July 2020
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    Let's Make It Legal !

    We are on the home straight now. Only eight weeks to go before you can VOTE YES!

    Thanks to the support from our fabulous donors we have achieved amazing things:

    - The largest social media presence of any campaign in the referendum - with 30,000 followers on Facebook and 2,500 followers on Instagram.

    - We are reaching around 1 million people per week with our messages.

    - We have 12 groups around the country with volunteers getting out on pickets, doing talks to community groups, having conversations at stalls and putting up signs and banners.

    Pretty amazing for a bunch of dedicated volunteers.

    But we couldn't do it without you, our donors. Every cent we get is pumped back into the campaign, and to keep up all those social media ads and banners and signs and pickets we need to keep fundraising.

    The vote is really close. All the polls show its neck and neck with the no vote, but the yes vote is steadily growing as people find out whats in the Bill.

    Our opponents are backed by foreign lobby groups and have had $700,000 in funding to fight against both the cannabis and euthanasia referendums.

    But foreign interference is not what NZ'ers want to see happen in our referendum, and we are sure evidence based messages that speak to values we all hold, will beat out big money from overseas.

    Please, if you can , help us to keep our social media presence strong. Help us to get the truth out there. And help us to Make IT legal NZ!

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  • Hell, who wanted an easy campaign anyway!

      5 April 2020
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    Here at Make It Legal we are totally up for a challenge.

    David and Goliath battle against well funded opposition? - hell yeah!

    A government that's luke-warm about even having a referendum and doesn't put out any information? - bring it on!

    Bugger all funding? - we have people power!

    Global Pandemic causing a nationwide lock-down and no events to campaign at, as well as stopping couriering anything around the country? ah, yeah.... um... [deep breath] We can DO this!

    Look lets be honest. We have had to completely change the way we are campaigning, and we have an uncertain deadline (the election may be postponed).

    We have to do a massive U Turn and go fully online. This means different skills and we now NEED to be able to pay for social media advertising or there is no way we can get to our target audience.

    Facebook ads cost $1.67 per day.

    Can you fund a days adverts?

    How about a week?

    What about helping us get some professional help for social media content (as we are all newbies at this shit).

    More than ever, we need your help to win this referendum. And we are soooo close. Polls are running at 54% That's not enough to guarantee a win. But it's bloody close to it!

    Let's Make It Legal. Together. Against The Odds!

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  • Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill announced

      3 December 2019
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    The government has released the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill. You can see it here: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2019-12/Cannabis%20Legalisation%20and%20Control%20Bill.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0Zvj-FctG6JwtMlWWt12fE114gbfZQp7ATm-WYv5VjWGwJiS8ZQZ0QpiQ

    Now we have the detail, its time to gear up and start campaigning. We need your help to print flyers and get signs up all over NZ.

    We Can Make It Legal!

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  • Ready, Set, Go!

      15 November 2019
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    With the local body elections out of the way, we are in the home straight for the referendum.

    And its going to be a tough fight - we are not only up against anti-cannabis groups who are being well-funded by overseas conservative groups... we are also up against a hectic 2020.

    There is a NZ General Election, Brexit, a US Presidential election, a referendum on euthanasia... AND a referendum on cannabis.

    Whew. We need help to get cut through.

    We need funding for flyers ($2,000 will get us $20,000 flyers); hoardings (big posters to put up on busy roads which cost around $120 each and we have a whole country to cover); and whatever else we can do to convince people to Vote YES.

    Please help. Even $5 means we can get 50 more flyers!

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    • 05/04/2020 by John

      Email is very. Difficult to learn who it’s from.

      Make it legal.

      Make what’s legal - initial reaction is to delete, but I persevered, and am about to donate’

      Keep up the good work, but don’t shoot. Yourself in the foot by hiding the identity of this Cause