Almost 9,000 people have strongly endorsed the Greens’ plan to legalise cannabis across the country, with a national online survey revealing that the vast majority of engaged Australians support legalising cannabis.
Legalising cannabis would get police out of people’s lives, create a new legal industry with thousands of jobs, make new social spaces to relax and unwind, and tip in $28 billion in fresh public revenue for schools, hospitals and climate action.
The time is now - let’s legalise it!
BY DAVID SHOEBRIDGE
Greens Senator for NSW
Working in both the NSW Parliament and the Senate I have seen how the aggressive policing of cannabis has been targeted against the most vulnerable in society, young people, First Nations communities and places like south west Sydney and the northern rivers of NSW. You never see a big cannabis bust in Toorak or Double Bay but that’s not because they don’t use it. It’s because of power, wealth and privilege.
It’s a fact that the criminal justice system is stacked against First Nations people. When it comes to cannabis First Nations people face significantly higher rates of arrest and incarceration for cannabis charges. In NSW, non First Nations adults were four times more likely than First Nations adults to be given a warning, as opposed to a criminal charge, for minor cannabis offences. The data shows that at every stage of the criminal justice system First Nations people are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted and jailed for cannabis offences. Seen in this way, legalising cannabis is a chance to right historic and ongoing injustices.
When I was first elected to Federal Parliament, I knew I would make it a focus of my work to legalise cannabis federally. Legalising cannabis will reduce incarceration rates, make cannabis sales and consumption safer through regulation, and produce around $28 billion in the first decade of operations.
On the 4th of August, my team and I launched our official report and consultation paper into our bill to legalise cannabis and less than a week later, on 10 August, we introduced the first ever bill to the Federal Parliament to legalise cannabis for the entire country.
You can read the full report here: Legalise It
The report contained overwhelmingly positive feedback for our plan - 98% of respondents agreed that we should legalise cannabis on the federal level. Additionally, 70% of those surveyed supported a 15% sales tax on cannabis, remarkably one of few occasions the public has put its hand up for a new tax!
We also received feedback from organisations and individuals looking to improve the bill. We have implemented this feedback and the final bill we read into Parliament reflects that extensive community consultation.
You can watch our video about the legalisation of cannabis and the introduction of the bill on Instagram
Now we have introduced the Legalising Cannabis 2023 Bill to the Senate, when Parliament sits again in September we will take it to committee for a round of formal national consultations.
We know that millions of Australians are behind us on this. Most often the question we are asked is “why haven’t we already done it?” - that’s the mood in the community. It’s now our collective job to make it the mood of the Parliament.
Let’s just legalise it.