Senate report rejects proposed laws to legalise recreational cannabis use in Australia June 3, 2024
Australia won’t see any cannabis cafes selling brownies anytime soon, despite agreement that the use of marijuana should be prioritised as a health issue.
A push to legalise the recreational use of cannabis on a national scale has been knocked back after experts expressed concerns it would lead to more use of the drug among young people.
A Senate committee rejected a bill introduced by Greens senator David Shoebridge on Friday, which calls to allow for cannabis possession for personal use in Australia, as well as the establishment of a national agency to regulate the growing of plants.
After receiving over 200 submissions the committee noted evidence from peak medical bodies including the Australian Medical Association (AMA) that warned wider access could exacerbate health risks, particularly for adolescents.
“Ultimately, the committee is concerned that the legalisation of cannabis for adult recreational use would create as many, if not more, problems than the bill is attempting to resolve,” the report said.
“While endeavouring to do so, the bill does not address several significant concerns, for example, ensuring that children and young people cannot access cannabis (particularly home-grow), managing risky cannabis use, and effective oversight of THC content.”
Cannabis remains the most commonly used illicit drug in Australia, according to the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey, with more than 2.5 million people having used it recently.
In 2019, about 11.7 per cent of people aged 14 years reported having had used the drug at least once it in the past 12 months. The figure was higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, at 16 per cent.
Under the Greens model, adults in Australia could legally grow six cannabis plants but it would remain a crime to sell the drug to anyone under the age of 18.
The bill also proposes the creation of licensed Amsterdam-style ‘cannabis cafes’ that sell marijuana products, such as edibles.
He said despite the committee’s findings the Greens plan to introduce the bill into parliament this year.
“The majority report in this inquiry reasonably fairly covers the evidence we had in the inquiry, although it does not detail the hundreds of individual submissions to the inquiry that, almost unanimously, asked us to vote this into law and to finally legalise cannabis,” he added.
Medical cannabis was legalised in Australia in 2016 and last year around 700,000 people reported having used cannabis for medical purposes.
(D.I. Comment - The Dalgarno Institute not only made a successful submission to this inquiry but presented evidence to it in February this year. As we expected from out previous sojourn into this space back in 2018, we saw the cliché, gratuitous, and often erroneous memes presented as ‘data’ by pro-cannabis punters. Sadly, this often was largely unchallenged in the hearings. Cleverly couched claims were often presented along with anecdotes of legal hardships for the hapless weed user, as to present them as victims, not villains in the illegal consumption of a psychotropic toxin. Concerningly, one such anecdote had a retired magistrate, academic and now pro-cannabis lobbyist, speak of the need to legalise and regulate because it will be safer. However, we want you to note the confession he makes, recorded in Hansard…
“…for example, about eating cannabis. I'm sure we have all had the experience of seeing friends and people that we know who have eaten cannabis and gotten really, really affected, way more than they wanted to be. There are safety measures that can be put in place to ensure that any use is safer use…”
This law official emeritus speaks blithely about illegal recreational cannabis use in his presence as if it were not only normal, but the majority of Australians are okay with this, all in an attempt to garner support for this society unravelling addition. Such is the manifestation of the new #ReeferMadness.
This should give you a hint as to who is attempting to control drug policy interpretation and implementation.
However, the review of such claims, along with the evidence of inevitable harms saw sanity prevail, again.
This will not stop some State actors, like the ACT continuing their experimental march to ‘cannabis-ify’ their jurisdictions – health, safety and well-being of our families and communities be damned.)
