poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
US states are voting on legalising marijuana. We should have the same debate
In the middle of next week millions of Americans will front the ballot box and make a decision that, depending on your point of view, will leave their nation on course to become a complete smoking ruin or a richer and far more relaxed place. Some choice. Either way, the joint will never be the same again.
We do not speak of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton here. No, there's a greener candidate enjoying a surge in popularity across the US that, on present trends, is poised to enjoy enormous success. And Australia should sit back and take note.
Making sense of legal weed in the US
What we can learn from the US states that have legalised marijuana.
Voters in nine US states will cast votes on whether to allow the legalisation of marijuana – five of them to vote on recreational use, the other four on allowing a more open market for medicinal marijuana. They join a growing number of other American states and countries around the world that have already moved to decriminalise the personal use and possession of cannabis.
This week in Australia federal legislation came into effect allowing businesses to apply to legally grow cannabis for medicinal use. Just who gets to use it will be left up the states to decide. But that's the easy part. The science is already decided when it comes to the beneficial effects of cannabis for those in chronic pain or suffering from life-shortening illnesses. The bigger question for Australia, and particularly for Mike Baird as the leader of the biggest and most influential state in the country, is whether we are now mature enough to make a strategic switch in our long-failing war on drugs and legalise personal marijuana use.
Australia spends more than $1.5 billion a year on its battle with illicit drugs. A significant portion of that – along with hundreds of thousands of man hours – is spent targeting dope grown and distributed for personal use. To what end? We have one of the highest rate of cannabis use in the world, with more than one in three Australians admitting to its use.
Expensive awareness campaigns and legal crackdowns have had no impact on its availability.
Yet we continue diverting resources and money on a small beer drug when they could be better used targeting the growing markets of ice and other amphetamines cooked up using poisonous chemicals. Haven't had to confront the ice epidemic? You obviously don't live in rural or suburban Australia. And you clearly walk city streets blindfolded.
Let's put aside the health argument over cannabis use because in a country where anyone over the age of 18 is legally allowed to consume as much alcohol and tobacco as they wish, we are still allowed a few poisons of choice. But there is growing data that shows legalising personal pot use can actually be beneficial for society.
In four US states that have recently authorised cannabis use, the state tax haul has been generously boosted with a new revenue source – Colorado last year pulled in more than $120 million in sales and excise tax revenue. Tens of thousands of new jobs have been created. In the US the market in legal marijuana is estimated to surpass $22 billion by 2020.
The American experience in recent years – a soft landing by any standards given the initial fear mongering against the move – has now inspired Canada to look at regulating its cannabis market by the middle of next year.
Despite forecasts by anti-drug campaigners of increased crime rates and drug addiction when states like Colorado ventured into largely unknown territory a couple of years ago, total marijuana-related arrests are down and there has been no significant upswing in the number of young people taking up pot smoking.
The big unknown here is that driving while impaired by cannabis remains a difficult proposition for all sides in the debate.Traffic fatalities in those US states that have legalised dope have remained stable in the past couple of years. But until a test is devised that can prove impairment – at present tests only indicate its presence – this will remain an area with no easy answers, particularly for the pro-dope movement.
But isn't it about time we at least had this debate in NSW? Talk to anyone involved in the never-ending war on drugs and they'll privately tell you that what we are doing now is banging our heads against a very large brick wall and throwing billions of dollars away in the process.
It's time for some new tactics. What do we have to lose? Australia may well be a land of the free, but sadly when it comes to politics, it is also the home of the not so brave.
Garry Linnell is co-presenter of The Breakfast Show on 2UE Talking Lifestyle.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/we-ne...ising-marijuana-its-time-20161103-gsh2q3.html
In the middle of next week millions of Americans will front the ballot box and make a decision that, depending on your point of view, will leave their nation on course to become a complete smoking ruin or a richer and far more relaxed place. Some choice. Either way, the joint will never be the same again.
We do not speak of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton here. No, there's a greener candidate enjoying a surge in popularity across the US that, on present trends, is poised to enjoy enormous success. And Australia should sit back and take note.
Making sense of legal weed in the US
What we can learn from the US states that have legalised marijuana.
Voters in nine US states will cast votes on whether to allow the legalisation of marijuana – five of them to vote on recreational use, the other four on allowing a more open market for medicinal marijuana. They join a growing number of other American states and countries around the world that have already moved to decriminalise the personal use and possession of cannabis.
This week in Australia federal legislation came into effect allowing businesses to apply to legally grow cannabis for medicinal use. Just who gets to use it will be left up the states to decide. But that's the easy part. The science is already decided when it comes to the beneficial effects of cannabis for those in chronic pain or suffering from life-shortening illnesses. The bigger question for Australia, and particularly for Mike Baird as the leader of the biggest and most influential state in the country, is whether we are now mature enough to make a strategic switch in our long-failing war on drugs and legalise personal marijuana use.
Australia spends more than $1.5 billion a year on its battle with illicit drugs. A significant portion of that – along with hundreds of thousands of man hours – is spent targeting dope grown and distributed for personal use. To what end? We have one of the highest rate of cannabis use in the world, with more than one in three Australians admitting to its use.
Expensive awareness campaigns and legal crackdowns have had no impact on its availability.
Yet we continue diverting resources and money on a small beer drug when they could be better used targeting the growing markets of ice and other amphetamines cooked up using poisonous chemicals. Haven't had to confront the ice epidemic? You obviously don't live in rural or suburban Australia. And you clearly walk city streets blindfolded.
Let's put aside the health argument over cannabis use because in a country where anyone over the age of 18 is legally allowed to consume as much alcohol and tobacco as they wish, we are still allowed a few poisons of choice. But there is growing data that shows legalising personal pot use can actually be beneficial for society.
In four US states that have recently authorised cannabis use, the state tax haul has been generously boosted with a new revenue source – Colorado last year pulled in more than $120 million in sales and excise tax revenue. Tens of thousands of new jobs have been created. In the US the market in legal marijuana is estimated to surpass $22 billion by 2020.
The American experience in recent years – a soft landing by any standards given the initial fear mongering against the move – has now inspired Canada to look at regulating its cannabis market by the middle of next year.
Despite forecasts by anti-drug campaigners of increased crime rates and drug addiction when states like Colorado ventured into largely unknown territory a couple of years ago, total marijuana-related arrests are down and there has been no significant upswing in the number of young people taking up pot smoking.
The big unknown here is that driving while impaired by cannabis remains a difficult proposition for all sides in the debate.Traffic fatalities in those US states that have legalised dope have remained stable in the past couple of years. But until a test is devised that can prove impairment – at present tests only indicate its presence – this will remain an area with no easy answers, particularly for the pro-dope movement.
But isn't it about time we at least had this debate in NSW? Talk to anyone involved in the never-ending war on drugs and they'll privately tell you that what we are doing now is banging our heads against a very large brick wall and throwing billions of dollars away in the process.
It's time for some new tactics. What do we have to lose? Australia may well be a land of the free, but sadly when it comes to politics, it is also the home of the not so brave.
Garry Linnell is co-presenter of The Breakfast Show on 2UE Talking Lifestyle.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/we-ne...ising-marijuana-its-time-20161103-gsh2q3.html
It's amazing how fast attitudes have changed here. Hopefully it spreads to Australia and other nations in the near future
