Cannabis plan fails to enthuse voters

[grace]

The majority of West Australians believe repealing the State’s cannabis laws will either have no effect or actually encourage the use of amphetamines, according to the latest Westpoll.

 

The State Government wants to repeal Labor’s drug laws, which allow people caught with up to 30g of cannabis, two plants or a smoking implement to be given an infringement notice rather than face a criminal charge. The Liberals plan to reinstate the cautioning system for possession only, lower the threshold to 10g and scrap the two plants allowance.

 

Before the last election, Labor also promised amendments to the laws which would have seen the two plants allowance abolished and the possession threshold lowered to 15g.

 

The Westpoll found that about 30 per cent of people thought the Barnett Government’s plan would have no effect on the consumption of amphetamines and 24 per cent believed it might actually encourage amphetamine use.

 

Although the State Government promised to repeal the laws in its first 100 days, Police Minister Rob Johnson said he would introduce the legislation “as soon as possible . . . in the spring session of Parliament”.

 

“The Government was elected on a platform of cracking down on drug use in our community and that’s what we are doing,” he said.

 

Shadow mental health minister Roger Cook said the poll reflected the belief that restricting one drug led people to move to another.

 

He said medical research was demonstrating that cannabis was a lot more harmful than people had been led to believe in the past and that created difficulties for policy makers.

 

Author: ROBERT TAYLOR STATE POLITICAL EDITOR

Date: 13 June 2009

Source: The West Australian

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?Men...ontentID=147875

 

HAVE YOUR SAY

 

RE: Cannabis plan fails to enthuse voters

 

The Government needs to examine closely the collateral damage that its changes will make.

 

Pushing people to another drug will clearly be one of those, but in respect of removing the cannabis plant allowance it will mean that those who want their cannabis will be pushed towards the criminal side of the trade; ie to a dealer to get their drug rather than grow their own.

 

The extensive report that led to the changes in the first place identified that the-then harsh cannabis laws had no effect on use but it did contribute significantly to great social harm - a criminal record seriously affected the users' future life chances, it led to marriage and family breakups and other social harms.

 

The Government needs to think again.

 

B. McCONNELL

HIGGINS, ACT

 

Date: 16th June 2009

Source: The West Australian

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?Men...ontentID=148430

[Sheppo]

He said medical research was demonstrating that cannabis was a lot more harmful than people had been led to believe in the past and that created difficulties for policy makers.

 

What is he on about? Obviously he has no idea about the medicinal situation in the US, or any real research done over the last 30 odd years.

[dsyfer]

I love how they lower the amount you are allowed to have, makes people buy smaller amounts more often and increase dealer profits

 

Do these knobs actually think that one day there will be no more cannabis? are they really that deluded?

[Budman2012]

Thanx again for all the great articles and Info Grace

I search out and read many Canna-based articles but rarely do i see the ones that you post up here , so ... much respect

Many of them are quite detailed and therefore often it is difficult to write an appropriate reply to them , I'm sure that's understood but the "view" counts of the topics speak for themselves really

 

This particular one tho ... ... got to at least reply this ...

The majority of West Australians believe repealing the State’s cannabis laws will either have no effect or actually encourage the use of amphetamines, according to the latest Westpoll.

Um ... No they don't according to their stastics ... ...

The Westpoll found that about 30 per cent of people thought the Barnett Government’s plan would have no effect on the consumption of amphetamines and 24 per cent believed it might actually encourage amphetamine use.

See , the Un-mentioned percentage (46%) of the Positive is the greatest percentage Woah ... trippy man.

This means that the Majority-Vote was indeed ... The Positive "Un-mentioned" ...

Also they don't define whether or not the deluded opinions of the "24%" were just tangential opinions extracted from the aforementioned 30%

Nevertheless , the majority of votes did not go to the neutral "No effect on Amphetamine use" percentage .. nor to the slightly more antagonistic " "Might!?" encourage Amphetamine use" percentage.

i.e.

 

Statistics can "prove" almost anything if the numbers are constructed in the "right" fashion

Stay vigilant

 

Budman

 

P.s. More to say on the WA Laws here no doubt ... please keep us posted as to how this goes everyone :-)

 

P.p.s. NOTE : See also the use of "Amphetamine Problems/Worries" in order to yet again Damn Cannabis , sickening isn't it