will this great herb ever be legal in australia?

[IloveWeedButHateBush]

eh?

[Ozzy420]

IMO when hell frzesers over...

[billyluke]

I wouldnt doubt hell freezing over long before it is legalised. Medicinal marijuana on the other hand.... i believe it will come along in the next 5 - 15 years ... of course the five years is for the government to actually start seriously considering it.

[Bubble Bags Australia]

Legalization, while its a great goal to aim for, is a very hard or possibly impossible one to obtain. I think the better thing to focus on, is what was done in Vancouver where even though cannabis is still totally illegal, there are canabis cafes, people smoke it in public, ther are seed stores, etc.. This is all because activist grops like the BC Marijuana Party worked for years to make the police change their priorities of crimes. It educated the police that they need to focus on using their money and man power to catch rapists, theifs, killers, etc instead of wasting their time busting pot heads, and thats exactly whats happened. The police realize that the pot head isnt hurting anyone by sitting in the park and smoking a joint and its not worth his/her time to deal with it.

 

I remembe once, a freind and I were sitting at a table in the cafe I used to run and we both taking huge tokes off this big glass pipe, just chillin and this cop comes right up to our table and we both got a little freaked out and paranoide cuz he could still bust us if he wanted to, but instead he introduced himself, said he was the new local beat cop and this his his patrol area and he wanted to ask if we had seen anything out of the ordinary like suspicious people or trouble makers in the neighbourhood.

 

Cool, eh

[Guest niall]

I wouldnt doubt hell freezing over long before it is legalised. Medicinal marijuana on the other hand.... i believe it will come along in the next 5 - 15 years ... of course the five years is for the government to actually start seriously considering it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Cannabis was only made illegal in the first half of the 20th century. We haven't even hit 100 years of prohibition, it's an utter abnormality. It was legal and used widely in Australia for decades, with great success.

 

If we re-define the question to "What is necessary to make it legal in Australia?" then it comes down to a) public opinion; and b. political will. First we need to organise the cannabis community and get politically active, and over time we will change a). When public pressure mounts, b. is possible.

 

Apparently the 2004 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, when compared with the 2001 survey, found that there is:

 

- falling support for the legalisation of cannabis

 

- increase in support for the medicinal use of cannabis (2/3 of survey)

and support for a trial of the medicinal use of cannabis (3/4)

 

Medical cannabis has very widespread support in the community, but it's not even on the cards. Support for legalisation is apparently falling, and this can most probably be blamed on a very successful scare campaign about its affects on the mental health of teenagers. What this has to do with consenting adults using cannabis responsibly, I don't know, but the public is scared and they don't understand the issue properly.

 

Compare Australia to Canada and the UK. Over here virtually no-one is prepared to stand up for themselves and admit that they use cannabis. In the UK and Canada they are doing this en masse, and making very real gains. Canada has had the cannabis issue as a regular news item for the last 3-4 years - everyone knows about it and talks about it. There is now massive support for medical cannabis, decriminalising cannabis, and majority support for outright legalisation. I predict that Canada is going to lead the way after the next federal election and will announce regulation of the cannabis industry within the next 5 years, sparking debate over the UN treaties. This in turn will have massive political ramifications south of the border in the USA.

 

What's happening in Australia? What's happened for the last 10-20 years? There have been a few political parties - the AMP, HEMP. Brash has been campaigning for medical use in NSW. What else? Not much really.

 

It's pretty clear why cannabis has not been re-legalised in Australia - because we really don't give a fuck. The public doesn't care and thinks it's not an important issue. We're too fucking scared to stand up and make an issue of it. If we really want it to be legalised, then the ONLY people who can make a difference are you and me. If we're not going to get off our asses, then yes it's not going to be made legal any time soon. We'll be waiting for Canada and other signatories to make progress on our behalf, for activists and smokers in other countries to do the hard work for us.

 

As Richard Cowan (of MarijuanaNews.com) says, "What have you done for freedom today?"

 

If we got off our asses and stood up for ourselves, then I think we could catch up to Canada in 5-8 years. In the Federal election after next we could have people on every ballot in the country, and get a respectable % of the vote. The one after that, I think we could have some real influence and the issue will be at the forefront of public debate, thanks to Canadian stoners. Seriously, if we put some effort in and co-ordinated ourselves at a national level, really got some unity into our community and had some clear goals to aim for, then I think we could re-legalise cannabis in Australia within 10-15 years tops.

 

But that's never going to happen unless we give a shit, and we clearly don't.

Edited August 21, 2005 by niall

[dsyfer]

What would happen if alcohol was declared illegal, except for medicinal purposes. There would be a massive outcry saying it was against civil liberties to do that. They are the ones you need on side, civil libertarians, they et everything they want.

[WantDaChronic]

The only problem we face is that howard has total controll over the government and if someone brings up something touchy like saying the nations take bribes (this actually happened like 2-3 days ago) all howard and his posse of idiots had to do is say i want that person removed and raise their hands in a show of support and because they have the majority of seats, they always win by deafult and will have the person removed before they are given their fair chance to speak :thumbdown

 

now if someone did bring up the legality of marijuana and compared to to cigarettes, alcohol and coffee in parliment and said that they should all be legal or illegal i bet there would be a total of 30 seconds of name calling then the person will be removed :thumbdown

 

lets face it, a person is smart and can easily make up their own mind whereas people are dumb and make group decisions based on what others think regardless if it conflicts with their personal beliefs as they dont want to be an outcast....now having said that, all we need is a few ads that are the opposite of the anti drug ones but instead of yelling bong on live long, we'd need to inform the public of what legalisation can do for the economy, the relief on the police force, the fact that it would be totally controlled by the government and like cigarettes, would only be sold to people 18+, etc. etc. etc.

 

IMO if you can make the government look like the worst thing since hitler for not legalizing marijuana when they first got into power, it would improve our chances of getting legalization so much it isnt funny...just remember howard and his posse are merely puppets and would do anything to stay in power, i gotta admitt that if howard promised legalization if re-elected, i'd vote for him but organise the first coo in australian history if like everything else he lied about it...

[jackfrost]

i reckon Australian drug policy is licking the arse of the American goverment. As soon as that country fucks off out of world events - through either lake of dosh or a huge war their - the better off the rest of the world will be.

 

Jack

[quizywig]

Sadly it all comes down to the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rule, there is a hell of a lot of money to be made by some people who have money in keeping all hemp products illegal, issues like common sense, health or enviromental benifits, or the general benifit of mankind play no part in the thoughts of group wanting to make money

[IloveWeedButHateBush]

anyone know why they made it illegal there in the first place? here in the u.s. they put some bullsthit movies out i think in the 30's that said if you get stoned you lose control and act crazy. it showed a bunch of people rioting in the streets and tearing shit up. i think it was called "reefer madness".