Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | CISTA |
Chairperson | Paul Birch [1] |
Founded | February 2015 |
Dissolved | November 2016 |
Ideology | Cannabis legalisation |
Website | |
cista | |
Citizens Independent Social Thought Alliance | |
---|---|
Chairperson | Barry Brown [2] |
Founded | 2017 |
Ideology | Cannabis legalisation |
Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol (CISTA) was a political party in the United Kingdom, which advocated the legalisation of cannabis.
The party was launched in February 2015. [3] The party fielded candidates in the 2015 general election, campaigning for a Royal Commission to review the UK's drug laws relating to cannabis and to push the economic argument for legalisation, which it argued could generate £900 million in taxation. [4] None of the candidates won a seat.
The party was deregistered by the Electoral Commission on 3 November 2016. [5] Former members of the party from Northern Ireland registered a new party with the same initials, Citizens Independent Social Thought Alliance, in February 2017 to contest the 2017 Assembly election. [2]
The party contested 32 constituencies, with its largest share of the vote coming in East Londonderry with 527 (1.5%).
Constituency | Candidate | Votes | % |
---|---|---|---|
Bethnal Green & Bow | Jonathan Dewey | 303 | 0.5 |
Camberwell & Peckham | Alexander Robertson | 197 | 0.4 |
Cities of London & Westminster | Edouard-Henri Desforges | 160 | 0.4 |
Dundee, E | Lesley Parker-Hamilton | 225 | 0.5 |
East Londonderry | Neil Paine | 527 | 1.5 |
Eddisbury | George Antar | 301 | 0.6 |
Esher & Walton | Matt Heenan | 396 | 0.7 |
Glasgow, Central | James Marris | 171 | 0.4 |
Glasgow, N | Russell Benson | 154 | 0.4 |
Glasgow, NE | Geoff Johnson | 225 | 0.6 |
Glasgow, NW | Chris MacKenzie | 213 | 0.5 |
Great Yarmouth | Sam Townley | 167 | 0.4 |
Guildford | Gerri Smyth | 196 | 0.4 |
Hackney, S & Shoreditch | Paul Birch | 297 | 0.6 |
Holborn & St Pancras | Shane O'Donnell | 252 | 0.5 |
Inverclyde | Craig Hamilton | 233 | 0.5 |
Islington, S & Finsbury | Jay Kirton | 309 | 0.7 |
Kensington | Tony Auguste | 211 | 0.6 |
Leeds, W | Matthew West | 217 | 0.6 |
North Down | Glenn Donnelly | 338 | 0.9 |
Paisley & Renfrewshire, N | Andy Doyle | 202 | 0.4 |
Rutherglen & Hamilton, W | Yvonne Maclean | 336 | 0.6 |
Sheffield, SE | Jen Battersby | 207 | 0.5 |
Stoke-on-Trent, Central | Ali Majid | 244 | 0.8 |
Streatham | Artificial Beast | 192 | 0.4 |
Thurrock | Jamie Barnes | 244 | 0.5 |
Upper Bann | Martin Kelly | 460 | 1.0 |
Vale of Glamorgan | Steve Reed | 238 | 0.5 |
Vauxhall | Louis Jensen | 164 | 0.3 |
Wakefield | Elliot Barr | 283 | 0.7 |
West Tyrone | Barry Brown | 528 | 1.4 |
Woking | Declan Wade | 229 | 0.4 |
Source: BBC News Election 2015 [6]
Lee Harris stood for CISTA in the 2016 London Mayoral election. He finished ninth out of twelve candidates, obtaining 20,537 first-round votes (0.8%). [7]
The party contested four of the 18 constituencies, with its largest share of the vote in any election that the party had contested coming in Newry and Armagh with 2.2% (1,032 first-preference votes). [8]
Constituency | Candidate | First-preference votes | % |
---|---|---|---|
Foyle | John Lindsay | 259 | 0.7 |
Newry and Armagh | Emmet Crossan | 1,032 | 2.2 |
Upper Bann | Martin Kelly | 672 | 1.5 |
West Tyrone | Barry Brown | 547 | 1.4 |
Following the de-registering of Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol in November 2016, [5] a new party bearing the same initials, Citizens Independent Social Thought Alliance, was registered with the Electoral Commission in February 2017, [2] one week before the close of nominations for the snap elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The leader of this new party is Barry Brown, who was a CISTA candidate in 2016 and 2017.
The party contested three of the 18 constituencies, with its largest share of the vote coming in Newry and Armagh with 704 first-preference votes (1.3%).
Constituency | Candidate | First-preference votes | % |
---|---|---|---|
Foyle | John Lindsay [9] | 196 | 0.4 |
Newry and Armagh | Emmet Crossan [10] | 704 | 1.3 |
West Tyrone | Barry Brown [11] | 373 | 0.8 |
Constituency | Candidate | Votes | % | Position |
---|---|---|---|---|
West Tyrone | Barry Brown | 393 | 0.9 | 7 [12] |
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP), also known as the Cannabis Party, is a political party in New Zealand. It is dedicated to removing or reducing restrictions on the use of cannabis and similar substances.
Newry and Armagh is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Mickey Brady of Sinn Féin.
South Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP for the constituency is Chris Hazzard of Sinn Féin.
Legalise Cannabis Australia, formerly the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party, is a single-issue Australian political party. It has a number of policies that centre around the re-legalisation of cannabis for personal, medicinal and industrial uses in Australia.
The 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, along with the Alliance Party, increase their support, with falls in support for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
Danny Kennedy is a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland, who served as the Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from December 2019 to May 2022. Kennedy previously served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Newry and Armagh from 1998 to 2017.
Mickey Brady is an Irish republican politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newry and Armagh since 2015. He was previously a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland for Newry and Armagh from 2007 to 2015.
People Before Profit is a Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005, active in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Cannabis political parties are generally single-issue parties that exist to oppose the laws against cannabis.
Justin McNulty MLA is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician, a former Gaelic football manager, and a former player at senior level for the Armagh county team. He has sat in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2016 as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Newry and Armagh.
The 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election. Turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 703,744 (54.9%), a decline of less than one percentage point from the previous Assembly Election in 2011, but down 15 percentage points from the first election to the Assembly held in 1998.
Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR), formerly the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, is a United Kingdom lobby group which campaigns to end the prohibition of cannabis. The group was founded in 1997 and reformed as CLEAR in 2011. It campaigned in a number of elections until it was statutorily de-registered by the Electoral Commission in November 2013.
The 2010 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland occurred on 6 May 2010 and all 18 seats in Northern Ireland were contested. 1,169,184 people were eligible to vote, up 29,191 from the 2005 general election. 57.99% of eligible voters turned out, down 5.5 percentage points from the last general election.
The 2005 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 5 May 2005 and all 18 seats in Northern Ireland were contested. 1,139,993 people were eligible to vote, down 51,016 from the 2001 general election. 63.49% of eligible voters turned out, down 5.1 percentage points from the last general election.
Local elections were held in Northern Ireland on Thursday 22 May 2014, contesting 462 seats in all, as part of the wider local elections across the United Kingdom. The election took place on the same day as the European Parliament election. 1,243,649 people aged 18 and over were eligible to vote, and 51.3% of the electorate turned out.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 18 seats were contested. 1,236,765 people were eligible to vote, up 67,581 from the 2010 general election. 58.45% of eligible voters turned out, an increase of half a percentage point from the last general election. This election saw the return of Ulster Unionists to the House of Commons, after they targeted 4 seats but secured 2.
3,971 candidates stood in the United Kingdom general election of 2015, which was held on 7 May 2015.
A by-election was held in the UK Parliament constituency of West Tyrone on 3 May 2018, following the resignation of Barry McElduff, who had been the Member of Parliament (MP) since 2017. McElduff had become embroiled in a social media controversy which had resulted in his suspension from Sinn Féin on 8 January. He announced his resignation on 15 January 2018.