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Victoria recommends exploring legal cannabis


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https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/lrrcsc/inquiries/article/2812

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/inquiry-into-drug-laws-in-victoria-recommends-exploring-legal-cannabis/news-story/eb33e1d64b2ccc1c656e254d37fa73c2

 

 

Inquiry into drug laws in Victoria recommends exploring legal cannabis
VICTORIA will explore legalising cannabis as part of wide-ranging drug reforms recommended in a lengthy report released on Tuesday.

 

VICTORIA could follow in the footsteps of US states Colorado and California by legalising recreational cannabis use.

The parliament’s drug law reform inquiry released a 680-page report on Tuesday considering 230 submissions and recommending 50 changes for how to tackle illicit drug use.

 

Within the report is a section dedicated to cannabis and, specifically, “adult use” of the drug. The report notes that cannabis is “the most popular of the recreational illicit drugs” but also “one of the less harmful substances when compared to other drugs such as alcohol or heroin”. It delares legalising cannabis is “an area ... worthy of further investigation”.

 

The inquiry recommends recreational cannabis be researched by a new government advisory council. Members of the committee visited Colorado, California and Uruguay during their overseas study tour. Uruguay was the first country to legalise the sale of marijuana across its entire territory in 2017.

Other recommendations include further evaluation of prison alcohol and drug programs, pill testing at festivals, the development of guidelines for GPs around prescribing opioids and reviewing Victoria’s current needle and syringe program.

 

 

Dr Alex Wodak, who helped establish the first medically supervised injecting centre in 1999 and is the director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said today was about addressing a “miserable failure”.

 

He said the focus has for too long been on treating drug dependence as a crime, rather than a health issue.

“We’ve relied almost exclusively on efforts to cut the supply of drugs, probably well intentioned, but the market force is very powerful,” he told AAP.

“The next step has to be redefining the drugs problem as a health and social issue.”

 

Fiona Patten started the inquiry in 2015. Today she said she wished the report went further but was pleased with many of the recommendations.

“While I would have liked to see the report go further, I believe that this report and its recommendations accurately reflect community attitudes to drug policy today,” the Reason Party MP said.

 

“We now understand that drug use is a health and social issue that law enforcement cannot solve. We need root and branch change.”

Jarryd Bartle, a criminal justice policy consultant and sessional lecturer at RMIT in Melbourne, said the report is a step in the right direction, albeit “not revolutionary”.

 

“Overall the report is a good, comprehensive summary of evidence-based drug policy and I hope it will be used in the future to guide lawmakers,” he told news.com.au.

 

He said it was “great to see that committee recognise that problematic drug use is primarily a health problem, not something our criminal justice system is well suited to address” and that he was pleased to see the recommendation for increased diversion programs for people found in possession of drugs.

 

“(It’s) a slight wink towards potentially implementing a Portugal-style decriminalisation model in the future,” he said.

The report found the most commonly used drugs in 2017 were cannabis (9.9 per cent), pain killers or opioids (3.4 per cent), cocaine (2.5 per cent), ecstasy (2.4 per cent), sleeping pills (1.7 per cent) and methamphetamines (1.5 per cent).

 

It also found that Victorians in their 40s were much more likely to use cannabis recreationally in 2016 than they were in 2013 and that use increased among those aged 60 or older, too.

 

 

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Victoria is a fucking socialist shithole, no fucking surprise there, FUCK THAT

 

Nothing but a bunch of money hungry STNUC, the government are not your friends quite the opposite

 

HOW MUCH TAX, with that

 

cannabis is the peoples drug an any $ should stay with them

 

told ya its all about the $ not any stnuc health, billions of rec $ stolen of the people,

gone to BIG business and lining the government pockets

 

And people VOTE for this shit


And no i didn't bother reading your propaganda 

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Victoria is a fucking socialist shithole, no fucking surprise there, FUCK THAT

 

Nothing but a bunch of money hungry STNUC, the government are not your friends quite the opposite

 

HOW MUCH TAX, with that

 

cannabis is the peoples drug an any $ should stay with them

 

told ya its all about the $ not any stnuc health, billions of rec $ stolen of the people,

gone to BIG business and lining the government pockets

 

And people VOTE for this shit

 

And no i didn't bother reading your propaganda

I agree with your opinion of the Victorian government and no doubt the driving force behind this will be tax revenue rather than the bullshit that they mentioned. Either way it will probably be a step in the right direction to start a conversation about legal recreational use. They're not going to change laws for the people if there is not something in it for themselves.
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Yeah, don't get me wrong, all for access to medical pot

 

but current commercial growers give pot a bad name

 

i would love to be able to buy a nice GQ special, or a cardrona Australia sativa x afghan

as well many others

Your right and they will run with it given half a chance monsanto is already lining up to flood the market with gm cannabis ,,,and monopolise it ,along with israel.

 

Where there is dollars ,,,Your right and

they will come ,,,but in places ...like humboldt smaller growers have banded together to form co ops like you have here with ,boutique wine etc or beer .

Hopefully one day ....

 

Hopefully before we are all ancient .

As long as they dont make it legal or decriminalized to consume or hold ,but make it illegal to grow ....that will be the question

Edited by cardrona
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Your right and they will run with it given half a chance monsanto is already lining up to flood the market with gm cannabis ,,,and monopolise it ,along with israel.

 

Where there is dollars ,,,Your right and

they will come ,,,but in places ...like humboldt smaller growers have banded together to form co ops like you have here with ,boutique wine etc or beer .

Hopefully one day ....

 

Hopefully before we are all ancient .

As long as they dont make it legal or decriminalized to consume or hold ,but make it illegal to grow ....that will be the question

they’ll defo make it illegal to grow at first, scratching pharma backs. Then it will get where they can’t stop ppl growing and ppl attitudes hopefully will have changed by then.
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they’ll defo make it illegal to grow at first, scratching pharma backs. Then it will get where they can’t stop ppl growing and ppl attitudes hopefully will have changed by then.

Regardless of the law I will continue to grow for personal use. They can all eat a dick in the meantime 8====D
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