Cannabis Policy: Where to from here? 7th and 8th November, Melbourne

[jabez]

Yeah, occasionally a university does something like this, or once in a blue moon there’s some interview on ABC National talking about the issue from a scientific and logical prospective. But at the end of the day it always stays underground and never goes mainstream.

 

Fact is, the Australian government will never even consider legalizing cannabis for recreational use (or change the laws in any substantial way) until the US does.

 

Then if you consider our current political situation. Which is a moderate right wing party (labour) who are about to lose there power to a (liberal) extremist right wing party, it becomes clear that changing the laws regarding cannabis will not be a topic that’s going to be coming up in federal parliament anytime in the near future.

 

To put it simply, we all gonna be treated like second class citizens for a long time to come yet.

 

It’s good to see people out there that haven’t had their spirit completely crushed by them though.

 

Peace

[mjbarratt]

Fact is, the Australian government will never even consider legalizing cannabis for recreational use (or change the laws in any substantial way) until the US does.

 

This is exactly the conclusion we came to. In the current international climate, Australia would not make that move unless the US does. The conversation moved to the fact that we are on the edge of another Great Depression and perhaps that is the kind of event (as bad as it is) that might move the US towards such a radically different position. Or not...

 

Medicinal use is another matter and is probably a lot more achievable within the international conventions.

 

That said, one of the professors at the conference mentioned that his next trip was to join a group of scholars who are working on the international conventions. As you are likely aware, it is possible to denounce the conventions (South American countries have recently done so to enable the legalisation of coca leaves).

 

While the politics may be dismal, we figure we should still try and get the academic side of it ready... just in case the winds change

[jabez]

While the politics may be dismal, we figure we should still try and get the academic side of it ready... just in case the winds change

 

Definitely.

 

If a few motivated intellectuals put there heads together and got something happening, then I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t make some ground on legalizing the medical use of cannabis in Australia (or at the very least make cannabinoid based medications more available). The biggest obstacle would probably be the murdoch media, rather than the government when it comes to the medical use of cannabis.

 

Also, I’m fairly sure coca leaves are allowed to be legal in south america because they can prove a long standing cultural or/and spiritual use of the leaves. Kind of like how peyote is legal for spiritual use in some US states. So it might not be completely significant when it comes to the use of recreational drugs by westerners.

 

But then again, some would argue that the cannabis/hemp plant has played just as an important roll in developing western culture as wheat and cotton. Which would indicate the cannabis plant is infact incrediblly culurally significant to western society.

 

Peace

[Ford Fairlane]

Here's my blog post reflecting on the workshop

 

 

Great wrap up of the conference MJ, thanks for sharing it with us..

[mjbarratt]

Glad you liked it puka! Will do some more blog posts this week - just came back from EGA conference so that was exciting!