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Opportunities Party founder Gareth Morgan says cannabis is the number one issue for young voters and needs to be dealt with in an evidence-based way.
He says the research is now clear that legalisation is the best way to minimise harm.
The call for change has been attacked by Rotorua MP Todd McLeay and Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell, who says there are better ways to encourage young people to get out and vote than by dangling a cannabis carrot in front of them.
Mr Morgan says that’s the sort of attitude that turns young people off voting.
"The big resentment that younger people have to older people is that they don't look at the research, they are ideologically based, it is typical regressive conservative thinking. It is that which the young people resent. They resent the arrogance of these older people dismissing something out of hand in the face of the evidence," he says.
Mr Morgan says there is support for legalisation in low income communities which see people using much more harmful methamphetamine because they can’t get cannabis.
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