On Wednesday, the Greens’ Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023 for adult-use was put to a vote in the Senate and defeated by quite a margin.
Among other things, the proposed legislation would have seen a national agency established to oversee a commercial adult-use industry. Home cultivation for personal use would have also been permitted, as would licensed “cannabis cafes”. The bill’s proponents indicated it would also make a significant contribution to government coffers, with $28 billion in anticipated public revenue in the first 9 years of operation. It would have made no changes to existing medicinal cannabis arrangements.
The bill was defeated 13 to 24.
The Greens are disappointed, but it’s not as though the result was unexpected as it was well-known it faced stiff opposition – and the party sees this as a beginning, not an end.
“We took a big step today from treating cannabis as part of the failing ‘war on drugs’ and instead putting forward a model that is safer, reduces harms and delivers for the millions of Australians who just want us to legalize it!,” said Greens Senator and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge. “The support for this bill across the community is enormous and it’s why we know cannabis legalisation in this country is inevitable.”
This was the first time Federal Parliament has voted on a plan to legalise cannabis across Australia. Senator Shoebridge, while upbeat, was scathing of the major parties.
“The Labor and Coalition parties joined together to try and hold Australia back in the 1950’s by blocking this desperately needed reform.”
The Greens are committed to legalising cannabis – if not in this Parliament, then in the next.
In related news, the vote came just days after motoring organisation NRMA published its “Driving High Report“. The report claims that in close to 70 per cent of drug driving related crashes in New South Wales, the drug in the driver’s system was cannabis; followed by methylamphetamine (43%) and cocaine (7%).
There was no breakdown of illicit vs. medical (legal) cannabis use in those crashes, but the report also calls for a review of warning labels on medication and more research carried out into the effects of medicinal cannabis on driver impairment.
Source link
