Time to think about decriminalising marijuana

[Tam]

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/...3151208185.html

By Trish Bolton

January 5, 2004

 

People who smoke pot don't belong to a subculture, they're part of the mainstream.

 

Australians don't really need an excuse to have a drink but it's that time of year where you can really drink up, indulge as much as you want; get drunk, smashed, blotto - no one will really mind.

 

You can start drinking at the lunchtime barbie or picnic, down at the beach or while you're watching the cricket; you can do it in front of your parents and kids and with neighbours and friends.

 

But if you want to roll one, have a choof or take a toke, you won't find the same warm reception at home, in your workplace or anywhere else. Unless you're in Nimbin, you'll have to sneak away and do the deed in private.

 

And if word gets out about your nasty habit you'll be called a druggie when your back is turned, families will talk in hushed tones about your wicked ways, neighbours will ostracise you, and better pray no one tells the boss.

 

If this isn't bad enough, there's always the chance you'll be caught for possession; you might merely be warned or you could end up before the courts; it all depends on the state you're in at the time - and I don't mean how stoned you are.

 

If you're in the Netherlands you can go shopping for cannabis but in Australia buying it makes you a criminal, and growing it can land you in prison for up to 12 months.

 

It's all a bit silly really - we encourage and condone the use of one drug and demonise the other.

 

Sillier still is that we don't just allow alcohol, we push it, and we push it very hard indeed. Marketing booze is big business. What's a sporting hero without a magnum in hand, why have a celebration without alcohol and what's sex without a little drunken abandon to add to its appeal? So surrounded is alcohol by images of success, sexuality and good times that we might as well pour it down the throats of the children we seek to protect.

 

Line up on a Friday or Saturday night at any bottle shop and you'll see parents taking orders from their clearly under-age kids about what their teenagers want for that night's drinking; these same parents would freak if they thought their kids smoked marijuana.

 

Line up on a Friday or Saturday night at any bottle shop and you'll see parents taking orders from their clearly under-age kids about what their teenagers want for that night's drinking; these same parents would freak if they thought their kids smoked marijuana.

 

It's OK to get out of it, what seems to matter is the substance we abuse to do it. Who cares that hospital beds are filled with people who abuse legal drugs and that more young people overdose on alcohol than are damaged by a night's bingeing on marijuana.

 

But people who smoke pot don't belong to a subculture, they're part of the mainstream. Hell, even Homer Simpson got stoned, Bill Clinton almost did and Mark Latham admits to it. The groovy gen Xers in the successful television show The Secret Life of Us regularly pass a joint and advertisers often use drug parlance to market their wares; it's as much a part of life as a having a VB or a chardonnay.

 

We use drugs for all sorts of reasons but mostly because they're fun - that's why we've been doing it for thousands of years. Of course, it's no fun at all if occasional pleasure becomes habitual abuse, but prohibiting a substance won't change that.

 

According to statistics released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, one in three Australians used cannabis in a 12-month period; one-third of the population is getting high, most of them aren't having psychotic episodes and the majority are ordinary hard-working Australians.

 

This is not to say that marijuana doesn't have both short and long-term side effects. Like all drugs, it does. But tackling those concerns in a health setting rather than in a punitive legal framework will produce more enlightened outcomes than have occurred with prohibition.

 

Let's bring marijuana use out into the open and liberate wardrobes of the now ubiquitous "grow lights" to accommodate that other fetish - fashion.

 

Decriminalisation will have many benefits: backyards all over Australia will be free to cultivate an organically grown plant or two, young people won't be exposed to criminals, in what Access Economics have identified as Australia's $4 billion blackmarket, and courts will be freed up.

 

In the end is there really so much difference between lighting up and pouring a drink, or between chilling a wine cask in the fridge and cultivating a plant in the backyard?

 

I'll kick back, have a drink, and think about it.

 

Trish Bolton is a Melbourne writer and a tutor in media and communications at Swinburne and Monash universities.

Edited January 4, 2004 by Tam

[chief23]

Good to see some positive press. You should add this one to MarijuanaAustralia.net

 

Chief

[LoveMeBucket]

so true.... its good to see these kinds of articles

[Luke Skywalker]

Indeed, cheers for picking that one up tam... Check out MA, it's something the Ozstoners crew is right behind, the more newshawks spreading the word here and on MA, the better.

 

I'd be interested to see the editorial letters in reply to that... was it a general article or editorial itself?

 

It is what we need tho, a bit of sanity being shown in the larger papers. I find it interesting a News Limited paper should show this on it's pages....

 

Cheers again Tam, keep up the good work.

[NEWBIE]

good to see that someone is expressing there opinion. We live in a country that prohibits Marijuana, the only reason why it is prohibited is because the government know that if it is legalised they wont make any money off it. Am i right fellow OZstoners ?

 

~ peace out

[Luke Skywalker]

Uhhh, no, it's more likely almost to exlusion that any decriminalised or legalised framework would likely draw more money in for the gov... taxes on cultivation, liscencing of new drugs and the hemp industry alone could be worth billions to this nation....t's the individuals in that government who may lose out tho... they have lots of ties to industries which would be moderately to severely affected by change in cannabis legislation.

 

e.g. The alcohol industry has a lot of money to make by keeping cannabis illegal, and why would you want competition for the intoxication market? These companies and the individuals at the heads of them often have vested interests in polical parties and members of parliament, and this interest then becomes "the public interest". :angry:

 

Thing is, the people use so much pot it's kinda looking stupid. And the people are starting to realise the realities of the drug, and the progenitors of it's banning, (the us, not the most popular bunch around the world at the moment...) are really nothing to do with protection of their health, or wellbeing... it's about money.

[99waystofuckyou]

What a fantastic article, it will be interesting to read the editorials about this one.

[Guest niall]

Good to see some positive press. You should add this one to MarijuanaAustralia.net

Actually what you should do is submit it to MAPinc.org, but don't bother as it's already up now. I don't actually take many submissions, I source all of my news from MAP automatically, so the best thing to do is to send all news like this to them and that way it gets syndicated out to news sites all around the world like MA.

 

It was a great article too, so refreshing to see something like that printed. The regular staff must have been on holidays...

[free choice]

some good common sense .... Yaaaay !

 

OK all you prohibitionists , pollies & you police .. did you all get that ?

 

we don't want to have to make you look now... it's right in your face !

[roid]

What a fantastic article, it will be interesting to read the editorials about this one.

here's one.

 

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/05/1073267965383.html?from=storyrhs

 

Mother's guilty little secret

 

Trish Bolton (Opinion, 5/1) is not the only one who believes that marijuana should be decriminalised. I am middle-aged and have smoked for almost half my life - I have always been employed and actively involved in school and community groups.

 

I am what most people would consider to be a "good citizen" except for my dirty little habit, which I keep secret even from my closest friends.

 

It is like living a double life, simply so my son will not be ostracised because his mother is a druggie. I just wish there were more druggies like me who are willing to do their bit for the community.

Name and address withheld