On Wednesday, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed laws legalising the recreational use of marijuana, which will allow residents aged over 18 to possess up to 50 grams and grow two plants from next year. However, this has garnered a strong rebuke from Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, who has labelled the legislation “dangerous” and has threatened to block the laws:
On Thursday Dutton described the new laws as unconscionable, comments interpreted as urging the attorney general to challenge or overturn the ACT law, passed on Wednesday.
“I think it might be trendy for the ACT government to go down this path, and they’ll say they’re enlightened and progressive and all the rest of it,” Dutton told 2GB radio. “But I think it’s dangerous … Christian Porter is having a look at it at the moment.”
Porter played down – but did not rule out – the possibility of the commonwealth directly overriding the laws. He told Guardian Australia the laws are “obviously a matter for the ACT” and he will consider “what issues may arise to the enforcement of existing commonwealth laws that criminalise the possession of prohibited drugs, including marijuana”.
It is only because of historical accident that marijuana is illegal, while alcohol and tobacco aren’t, despite their arguably much worse impacts on health.
Moreover, other Anglosphere nations have already legalised marijuana with minimal, if any, adverse consequences.
For example, eleven states across the US now have legalised marijuana for recreational use, whereas more than 30 have legalised it for medical use.
Recreational cannabis also became legal in Canada in last October.
The Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation has also thrown its support behind legalising marijuana:
Cannabis arrests have accounted for the largest proportion of illicit drug arrests in Australia. In 2015-16, of the two million Australians who use cannabis every year there were almost 80,000 cannabis arrests…
Of these arrests, the overwhelming majority (90 per cent) were consumers while the remainder (10 per cent) were providers. Yet in 2017, 92 per cent of drug users reported in a national survey that obtaining hydroponic cannabis was “easy” or “very easy” while 75 per cent reported obtaining bush cannabis was “easy” or “very easy”…
Drug policy has surprisingly little effect, if any, on consumption patterns but does produce serious harm…
A study comparing residents of more liberal Amsterdam and more punitive San Francisco using the same methodology found less illicit drug use (including cannabis) in Amsterdam and a far greater likelihood that San Francisco residents were also offered heroin, cocaine or amphetamine on the most recent occasion of trying to buy cannabis…
Clearly, Australia should follow the other Anglosphere nations and legalise marijuana.
