Hot on the heels of the South Australian Liberal Party’s idiotic announcement that it wage a ‘war on weed’ that would see it treated as harshly as hard drugs like heroin, opinion polls show the majority of Australians support decriminalising marijuana. From The Conversation:
Australians have a more progressive stance to cannabis reform than current laws reflect.
A poll conducted by the Greens this week found that the majority of Tasmanians support the decriminalisation of recreational use of cannabis in the state.
This is in line with the findings of the latest 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSH Survey) showing Australians largely support the decriminalisation of cannabis and the use of medicinal cannabis, and a growing number support full legislation of cannabis.
The latest NDSH survey from 2016 found 73.9% of Australians do not support the possession of cannabis being a criminal offence. When asked how cannabis possession should be dealt with by the courts, 46.6% of Australians reported they would prefer either “a caution, warning or no action”, while 27% said users should be referred “to treatment or an education program” over more punitive measures.
Just 4.5% of those surveyed felt a prison sentence was an appropriate action for being found in possession of cannabis.
The survey also found that only 50% of Australians would support increasing criminal penalties for the sale and supply of cannabis, showing a lack of punitive motivation even for sellers…
The vast majority of Australians support the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. The latest NDSH survey found that 84.4% of Australians support medicinal legalisation, with majority support in each state and territory…
Legalising cannabis for recreational use is a growing global trend. Canada, Uruguay, Catalonia and nine states in the US now have legalised cannabis, with cannabis dispensaries popping up across the country.
Following this trend, an increasing number of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis. From 2013-2016, support increased from 26% to 35.4%. Younger people tend to be more supportive of legalisation than older Australians, with nearly half of 18-24, 25-29 and 30-39 age groups supporting legalisation with approval at 48.4%, 47.3% and 45.8% respectively. The percentage who support recreational cannabis decreases with age.
Whatever the case, the ‘war on weed’ has been an abject failure, as the United States experience proved. All South Australia’s policy will do is criminalise otherwise ordinary law abiding citizens, while clogging-up the state’s legal system with frivolous arrests and penalties.
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Not surprisingly, then, the The Law Society of South Australia is opposed, as is the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, which has instead thrown its support behind legalising and taxing marijuana.
The fact of the matter is there’s strong policy arguments in favour of legalising and taxing weed, namely:
It would bring marijuana in line with alcohol and tobacco, which are both legal and regulated;
It would guarantee purity of supply;
It would reduce profits to organised crime; and
It would provide a useful revenue stream for the government, as illustrated by states in the US that have recently legalised marijuana.
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That the South Australian Government can go against the evidence and support a policy that has failed everywhere that it has been tried is quite frankly insane.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
