w.a. cannabis polls

[Guest IMPOSTORcharbonoNON-MEMBER]

Newshawk: Niall Young

Pubdate: Sat, 26 Apr 2003

Source: West Australian (Australia)

Copyright: 2003 West Australian Newspapers Limited

Contact: letters@wanews.com.au

Website: http :D/www.thewest.com.au

Details: http :P/www.mapinc.org/media/495

Author: Ben Harvey

 

POLL SHOWS SPLIT ON NEW CANNABIS LAWS

 

WA'S proposed cannabis laws have divided the community and look set to

be a defining issue at the next State election.

 

The latest Westpoll indicates less than half the community endorses the

move to decriminalise the use and cultivation of small amounts of the

drug.

 

Under the laws, which passed through the Legislative Assembly this

month, recreational users caught with two plants will be fined $200. Users with

less than 30g of the drug will be fined up to $150.

 

The Westpoll showed 46 per cent of people supported the changes and 41

per cent opposed them with the remainder unsure.

 

Of the 33 per cent of people who admitted having smoked cannabis, 65 per

cent supported the proposed laws. Under 35s were far more likely to

support the new laws than older people.

 

Health Minister Bob Kucera said the Westpoll, which showed more people

supported the new legislation than opposed it, vindicated the

Government's stance.

 

"My experience has been that when people are presented with the facts of

the legislation, they are very comfortable with it," he said. "People

should remember that the legislation reflects the recommendations of the

Community Drug Summit, where people based their approach on evidence -

not emotion.

 

"Under these laws, if you use cannabis or grow cannabis you will be

engaging in an illegal act and you will be penalised. End of story."

 

The Westpoll showed a third of coalition voters had smoked cannabis,

compared with 29 per cent of ALP voters and 59 per cent of Greens

supporters.

 

But more than half of ALP voters agreed with the reforms, compared with

38 per cent of coalition voters and 63 per cent of Greens voters.

 

Opposition Leader Colin Barnett said the higher use of cannabis by

coalition voters could be because they were more likely to have gone to

university. "People are probably reasonably accepting of possession of

small amounts of cannabis but in judgment there is strong opposition to

cultivation," he said.

 

The survey on cannabis use revealed a strong age bias, with 51 per cent

of people under 35 having experienced the drug compared with 24 per cent of

over 35s.

 

Support for the new policy also showed a strong age bias, with 53 per

cent of people under 35 supporting the changes.

 

More than 40 per cent of respondents believed cannabis was more harmful

than alcohol and a third rated it the same.

 

 

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[pipeman]

I just don't get these proposed laws that decriminalise growing for personal use. They are almost as illogical as the laws we have now. I mean how in the hell are full time smokers meant to keep themselves in regular supply with only two plants which can harvest no more than one ounce???????? :angry:

[Guest Field_of_Light]

maybe its their way of encouraging you to sell a lot of your weed and grow with quicker turnarounds....

[Luke Skywalker]

Once again a state government decides to go half-arsed and instead of fully legalising and therefore regulating cannabis use and personal growing, they've simply introduced a "decriminalisation" policy. The proposed changes to the law are granted, a small step in the right direction, but they will only confuse the general public, and in the end the prohibitionists will claim that more people are growing and using, that organised crime is taking a foothold as a result of the "soft" approach to cannabis, and then they use their classic, the old "cannabis leads to hard drug use" argument, which, as far as I know, has never, ever been proven. In fact, there's not a single shred of medical or social evidence that cannabis is any more harmful to use than the "accepted" recreational drugs, and I know there never will be. The only reason it's illegal in the first place is because of U.S. pressure... But I digress...

 

If we really want to remove the stigma of criminal prosecution from the average cannabis user and or grower, then we have to have a full legalisation, regulation and personal cultivation policy. Doing it half way is not a solution, and if you look at the details of the proposed laws, then you'll see that some of the penalties for cultivation have actually gone up! And the reversal of the burden of proof as far as "criminal proceeds" is still in place in W.A., so if you're caught and charged with intent to sell or supply, then you have to prove that what you own is not the result of criminal activity, as opposed to the normal way where the accused is innocent before proven guilty.

 

A government that truly cared about the welfare of it's citizens would not only decriminalise cannabis consuption and growing, but would legalise and regulate the industry. The cannabis market is worth literally billions of dollars australia wide, and W.A. has some damn good conditions for growing not only drug type cannabis, but the good old hemp for fibre too. So there's money to be made for not only the government in the form of taxation on the consuption of cannabis as a recreational drug, but also in the economic benefits of growing and processing hemp, which is truly a wonder fibre. The amount of money going into the hands of organised crime as a result of prohibition is staggering. If this income was even quartered, and then the remainder put into consolidated revenue then the economy would be in much, much better shape.

 

I hope that West Australians will realise that this "decriminalisation" bill being put forward is not what they think, and it will not allow you to grow pot. The police, as always, will have the discretion to charge with simple possesion and cultivation, where you'll get a fine, (don't we already end up with that in the courts anyway?), or if the particular policeman has a bad day, he can still charge you on weight, and even if it is under the limit, they can still charge you and do their utmost to fuck up your life with a criminal conviction. I certainly hope that the greens speak up in the upper house and try to amend this joke of a bill, because otherwise a lot of otherwise good citizens will be caught up in the criminal justice system because they didn't understand the law.

 

Either illegal, or legal, there's no middle ground here.