The Legalise Cannabis Party's candidate for Maitland Daniel Dryden's top issue is easy to guess - cannabis laws.
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He says cannabis is "no different from any other plant you find in your average garden".
But that's not all he's worried about. Mr Dryden is concerned about rising rates of homelessness, the increased cost of living, rent increases and rising interest rates - and he said something needs to be done.
Mr Dryden will contest the seat of Maitland at the March 25 NSW election.
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Mr Dryden said if elected, he will push for more funding for health, education and infrastructure, more doctors and nurses in Maitland Hospital, and more teachers in schools.
He said he will also push for relief against the rising cost of living, for electricity and gas bill relief, and for rising rental prices relief, as well as end "no grounds" evictions of tenants, and push to make it so landlords can't deny pets without good reason.
"All the hard work that has been done for Maitland, and promises to the Maitland electorate, I promise not to undo," he said.
The Legalise Cannabis Party's main goal is to end the prohibition of cannabis, and "re-legalise a plant that shouldn't have been criminalised in the first place".
The party wants to fully legalise cannabis for personal use, removing the financial barrier for medical cannabis patients.
CANDIDATE PROFILES
It also wants to change drug driving laws to test for impairment rather than presence of THC, allow people to grow their own cannabis plants in their home, relax rules around hemp, erase cannabis convictions and reallocate funding used in anti-cannabis task forces to other services.
"It is honestly very perplexing that we have had cannabis and hemp around for hundreds, if not thousands of years, with documented evidence of its uses dating back so far and it's only in the last 100 years that it was demonised and subsequently criminalised," Mr Dryden said.
"Cannabis is not some monster that hides under your child's bed at night. It's not some creature that lurks in the darkness waiting to strike at unsuspecting people.
"It's a plant. That's it. Just a plant. It's no different from any other plant you find in your average garden."
Chloe Coleman
Chloe Coleman is a journalist covering news in the Lower Hunter. Contact her on chloe.coleman@austcommunitymedia.com.au.
Chloe Coleman is a journalist covering news in the Lower Hunter. Contact her on chloe.coleman@austcommunitymedia.com.au.
