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In 1926, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) became Australia\u2019s first\u00a0jurisdiction to outlaw cannabis, following the 1925 Geneva Convention on Opium and Other Drugs. Fast forward seven war-on-drugs-soaked decades and the state began to undo the damage caused by prohibition, starting with decriminalization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael Moore, an independent member of the local Legislative Assembly, introduced the Simple Cannabis Offence Notice in 1992. This meant you\u2019d be given a $100 fine if the police caught you with small amounts of weed, and if you paid the fine on time you would have no criminal record. So, for more than 30 years, cannabis was essentially decriminalized in Australia\u2019s seat of power.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>In February 2019, the gauntlet was picked up by the next generation of progressive policymakers; this time, it was the calling of Labour MP (member of parliament), Michael Pettersson. He introduced a private member\u2019s bill, the Personal Cannabis Use Bill. Following the state of Vermont\u2019s model, ACT passed legalization legislation in January 2020, instead of holding a popular vote. Thanks to this \u201cnew attitude\u201d politician, residents can now possess 50 grams of dry plant material, 150 grams of wet plant material and cultivate two plants per person and up to four plants per household.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a fun fact: Like Washington DC,\u00a0recreational cannabis is legal in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Here\u2019s a not-so-fun fact: Because it remains federally illegal, like DC, there are no brick-and-mortar dispensaries to buy your bud. In fact, the Australian Capital Territory, where Canberra is located, is the only place in Australia to enjoy legalized recreational cannabis.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s the story? Is it merely a coincidence that cannabis is legal to consume yet unavailable to purchase in the capital cities of these two nations? Are there similar stories as the two capitals fight back against the damage the war on drugs caused?<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old politician told me that his\u00a0interest in the war on drugs came from his years as an angsty teen watching YouTube videos after school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found this series of videos, I think the group\u2019s called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,\u201d Pettersson says. \u201cThey had this former cop who had long black hair and a ponytail, a big buff guy. And they go on the American talk shows, and he talks about the war on drugs. He was so articulate and conveyed the failings of it. As a teenager I was really interested in politics, I thought he was the coolest dude ever. So, I\u2019ve always kind of approached the war on drugs from a highly skeptical position.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I ask Pettersson why no other Australian politician has been as progressive with cannabis law reform, he says, smiling, \u201cGood question! It just hit me one day: No one else is going to do this. If no one else does this, then it\u2019s not going to happen. So, I\u2019m going to have to do it. A lot of people assume I have some deep personal interest or maybe some past associations with cannabis use. I\u2019m a young guy, I\u2019ve experimented with recreational drugs in a very limited way. But I don\u2019t really use cannabis. I used it a handful of times when I was younger. My interest in this topic doesn\u2019t come from my own personal use, it comes from good public policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
With cannabis decriminalized in the region for more than 30 years, the local community was pretty open to full legalization, Pettersson says. \u201cPolling showed 54 percent of the community supported legalizing cannabis for personal use with only 27 percent opposed. So, the debate was pretty easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pettersson also future-proofed his policy by including a cannabis reform caveat to silence the opposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe naysayers said that when the ACT changed its laws, the Commonwealth laws would then be the laws in effect and would send people into the Commonwealth criminal justice system where they\u2019d get harsh penalties,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ACT amended its laws in such a way that we empowered a defense that says if your use is excused or justified by a state or territory law, then it provides a complete defense to the Commonwealth charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not content with legalizing cannabis alone, earlier this year Pettersson put forward another private member\u2019s bill to decriminalize small amounts of certain illicit substances in the ACT. Yet another parallel with DC, where the Drug\u00a0Policy Reform Act of 2021 that would decriminalize all drugs for personal use was introduced. Under Pettersson\u2019s proposed policy, drugs would remain a crime, but the penalties for those caught with up to 2g of cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines, and 0.5g of MDMA would be reduced from jail time to a $100 fine. Police would confiscate the drugs and the person would be referred to a health program, taking the emphasis from punishment to treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pettersson says the response from the local community has been positive and they\u2019re ready to have this conversation. However, there has been a certain amount of top-tier pushback.<\/p>\n
The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Reece Kershaw, recently appeared before the Commonwealth Parliament and strongly condemned the proposed change, saying it could potentially lead to what he referred to as narco-tourism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conservative elements are far more organized to argue and push back against the decriminalization of these\u00a0
substances. But for the most part, they didn\u2019t fight too hard on cannabis legalization,\u201d Petterson says.<\/p>\n
When asked about the similarities with Canberra and DC regarding drug policy reform, Petterson was quick to respond. \u201cIf I had to try and distill it down, there are certain things that you can only understand when you live in a capital jurisdiction,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to contend with federal legislators who don\u2019t represent your values telling you what to do. I imagine that similar politics would probably exist in Washington, DC, where residents also don\u2019t like their central government telling them what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pettersson maintains the well-being of his community remains his top priority. And while he contends that it\u2019s a \u201cbalancing act,\u201d for him, drug law reform is about harm reduction. It\u2019s heartening to see that around the world, prohibitionists are losing the war on drugs. Progressive politicians listening to the voice of the people is what will bring about real change, keep people out of jail and end outdated legislation.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published in the\u00a0print edition<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Aussies Follow America\u2019s Roadmap<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In 1926, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) became Australia\u2019s first\u00a0jurisdiction to outlaw cannabis, following the 1925 Geneva Convention on Opium and Other Drugs. Fast forward seven war-on-drugs-soaked decades and the state began to undo the damage caused by prohibition, starting with decriminalization.\u00a0 Michael Moore, an independent member of the localContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":54616,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[271,16153,50,16154,85,65,16155,16156,16157,16158,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54617,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54615\/revisions\/54617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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