Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol

Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol
Chairperson	Paul Birch^[1]
Founded	2015
Ideology	Cannabis legalisation
Website
cista.org
Politics of United Kingdom Political parties Elections

Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol (CISTA) is a political party in the United Kingdom which advocates for the legalisation of cannabis.

The party was launched in February 2015.^[2] The party had candidates in the 2015 General Election campaigning for a Royal Commission to review the UK's drug laws relating to cannabis and push the economic argument for legalisation, which the party argues could generate £900 million in taxation.^[3] None of the candidates won a seat.

Electoral performance

General election, 7 May 2015

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^[4]

London mayoral election, 5 May 2016

Lee Harris stood for CISTA in the 2016 London Mayoral election. He was positioned in ninth place out of twelve candidates, obtaining 20,537 first round votes (0.8%).^[5]

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 5 May 2016

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).^[6]

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

References

↑ "Interview: Paul Birch, founder of UK party for a review into cannabis law". The Mancunian. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
↑ Lamiat Sabin Cannabis party called Cista launched in UK to campaign for drug law reform ahead of elections The Independent 14 Feb 2015
↑ "New UK political party wants to make cannabis an election issue". The Guardian. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
↑ BBC News Election 2015. Results for Bethnal Green & Bow, Camberwell & Peckham, Cities of London & Westminster, Dundee East, East Londonderry, Eddisbury, Esher & Walton, Glasgow Central, Glasgow North, Glasgow North East, Glasgow North West, Great Yarmouth, Guildford, Hackney South & Shoreditch, Holborn & St Pancras, Inverclyde, Islington South & Finsbury, Kensington, Leeds West, North Down, Paisley & Renfrewshire, N, Rutherglen & Hamilton West, Sheffield South East, Stoke-on-Trent Central, Streatham, Thurrock, Upper Bann, Vale of Glamorgan , Vauxhall, Wakefield, West Tyrone, Woking
↑ "Politics Live: Election results coverage". BBC News. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
↑ "NI Election 2016: Results". BBC News. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2016.

External links

Paul Birch The economic case for legalising cannabis The Telegraph 04 Mar 2015
Election 2015: Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol Party BBC 31 Mar 2015

Political parties in the United Kingdom

House of Commons (650)	Conservative (330) Labour (231, including 24 Labour Co-operative)* Scottish National (54) Liberal Democrats (9) Democratic Unionist (8) Independent (4) Sinn Féin^† (4) Plaid Cymru (3) Social Democratic and Labour (3) Ulster Unionist (2) Green (E&W) (1) UKIP (1) Speaker (1)

House of Lords (809)	Conservative (255) Labour (204) Crossbenchers (181) Liberal Democrats (104) Democratic Unionist (3) UKIP (3) Ulster Unionist (2) Plaid Cymru (1) Green (E&W) (1) Non-affiliated & independent (29) Lords Spiritual (26)

Scottish Parliament (129)	Scottish National (63) Conservatives (31) Labour (24) Scottish Green (6) Liberal Democrats (5)

National Assembly for Wales (60)	Labour (29) Plaid Cymru (11) Conservatives (11) UKIP (6) Independent (2) Liberal Democrats (1)

Northern Ireland Assembly (108)	Democratic Unionist (38) Sinn Féin (28) Ulster Unionist (16) Social Democratic and Labour (12) Alliance (8) Green (NI) (2) People Before Profit Alliance (2) Traditional Unionist Voice (1) Independent Unionist (1)

London Assembly (25)	Labour (12) Conservative (8) Green (E&W) (2) UKIP (2) Liberal Democrats (1)

European Parliament (73 of 751)	Conservative (ECR, 20) Labour (S&D, 20) UKIP (EFDD, 20) Green (E&W) (Greens/EFA, 3) Independent (Non-inscrits, 2; ENF, 1) Scottish National (Greens/EFA, 2) Democratic Unionist (Non-inscrits, 1) Liberal Democrats (ALDE, 1) Plaid Cymru (Greens/EFA), 1) Sinn Féin (GUE/NGL, 1) Ulster Unionist (ECR, 1)

Other national and regional parties	Britain First British Democratic British National Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol Christian Christian Peoples Alliance English Democrats Independence from Europe Liberal Mebyon Kernow National Front National Health Action National Liberal NI21 Official Monster Raving Loony Progressive Unionist Respect Scottish Socialist Socialist Alternative^§ Socialist (GB) Solidarity^§ Women's Equality Yorkshire Party

Notes: *Co-operative Party candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party as "Labour and Co-operative Party" candidates. ^†Although Sinn Féin have elected members and offices at Westminster, they are abstentionist and therefore do not take their seats. ^§Some candidates stand as "Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition" candidates.

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