Marijuana Research - Herald Sun 28/11/02

Article in todays Herald Sun..
by Mandi Zonneveldt
Monash University is offering a $50,000 grant to study dope.
The university is looking for a PhD student to research the economics of marijuana, but the project will not involve sampling the product or hitting the streets to find the best deal.
Instead, the economic impact of the drug will be weeded out through analysis of statistics from Federal Government drug surveys and the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence.
Dr Xueyan Zhao, from Monash University's Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, will supervise the succesful student's investigation of marijuana use in Australia, the cost of the drug and its impact on the market for alcohol and tobacco. She said the research would also consider whether legalising marijuana would create a tax boom for governments.
"From the economic aspect it's a win-win once you legalise it" she said.
"But there's probably very strong argument to say you can't legalise it because of the health risks."

I've always wondered why the government won't just legalize it and tax it as much as they tax tobacco & alcohol nowadays.
I reckon with all they money they made taxing it...
*stoner tangent kicks in*
Or better yet, get the government to manufacture it themselves. Government-approved pills with the contents stamped on them: MDMA 75mg MDMA 100 MDMA 50mg. ROFL if the current prime-minister would have his face stamped on one side "Yeah mate, woolies has these f#$kin' excellent Yellow Johnnie Howards! ....
*reality returns*
...they could easily spend a bit on education, health-care whatever else they wanted to. But who are we fooling, this is the "Reefer Madness" generation...
[on-topic]
Choice. I hope someone smart picks up on this and does a good job.

If it's ever legalised, just watch for them to bring in some ridiculously low maximum THC content level, which would most likely mean you'd get higher off a Marlborough. And then because of this, just watch the illegal trade continue as it currently is...

^^
When Canada was discussing their policy about weed, I believe that the proposal for the THC content of weed was approx 10-15%... which is a VERY good toke IMHO. Australia would probably follow suit.
My personal preference for weed is a lower THC content, as it's hard to skirt the boundaries of "fun" stoned and "I can't move" stoned when one cone can send you waaaaaay over the limit. On one occasion I demanded leaf over bud for this reason. 8)