The Green Party says it looks forward to ACT joining the fight for drug reform by replacing prohibition with regulation.
It comes after ACT leader David Seymour spoke with Newshub Nation on Saturday about the problems of gangs selling illicit drugs in New Zealand.
"The heart of the problem is that is profitable to sell illegal drugs, so as long as that is true it's going to keep happening," he told host Rebecca Wright.
Seymour said he wanted Inland Revenue to find out where gang revenue is coming from and make sure they aren't evading taxation.
"We are going to make sure they pay their share of tax. Right now they are bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs that are ruining people's lives and they are getting off scot-free," he said.
But Green Party revenue and drug reform spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick wants Seymour to know drug reform is needed if he wants to tax drug dealers.
"It's a rare day to find any coherence in ACT's logic, but we're fascinated to find out where this desire to stop tax evasion and their new focus on illicit drug revenue and opportunities for taxation takes them," she said in a statement on Sunday.
"Right now, the Government's focus on criminal prohibition under the draconian Misuse of Drugs Act pushes drugs into the shadows - where they cannot be regulated or taxed.
"The only way any Government can tax drug revenue is by overhauling drug prohibition and replacing it with regulation, preferably based on an evidence-based health approach.
"This is something the Greens have been pushing for, for decades. When the penny finally drops, we look forward to ACT joining the cause for drug reform."
According to ACT's website, it supports a referendum on the legalisation of cannabis.
"Prohibition of cannabis has failed, but we need to be sure any particular approach to legalisation will improve the status quo. Our priority should be harm reduction, especially keeping cannabis out of the hands of children," it states.
In 2020, Seymour threatened to strip the party's youth wing Young ACT of its name over plans to sell drug paraphernalia at a university event to promote its policy to legalise not just cannabis but LSD, magic mushrooms, and MDMA.
"This regulated market would allow us to better control who consumes drugs, their potency, and force producers and distributors to provide information regarding the risks and effects of the drugs in question," Young ACT's statement said.
"Young ACT believes that this approach also respects the individual's right to make informed decisions about their life."
Seymour told Newshub the policy is not something "you'll see anytime soon" and that legalising drugs is "not a political priority" for him.
