Dutch elections: cannabis lovers have their own party
The election was originally scheduled for May 2007. However, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, has offered the resignation of the cabinet on June 30, 2006 after one of coalition partners, D66, withdrew their support from the cabinet the day before over Rita Verdonk's (minister for Integration and Immigration) treatment of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali nationality case.
Pot for everyone
Anyhow this elections offer the Dutch a wide scope of parties to vote for. The most outstanding of all would be Groenvrij (“Green Free'), a party of which the main goal is to decriminalize cannabis use and cannabis growing. Every citizen should be allowed to grow 10 plants. Bans and restrictions for growing and using industrial hemp should be raised as well. Groenvrij contributes to the so-called internet democracy; all party members older than 16 would be able to gain insight and give input through the internet and collectively decide what point of view the party takes.
Other parties that reach a high number of chairs in the polls are the socialist party SP and the Christian democrats (CDA). It would be the first time that the SP changes its coalition party status for a place in the cabinet.
Groenvrij.nl (Dutch)
