SA should follow ACT lead and legalise cannabis for personal use, says Greens MLC Tammy Franks
SA should take a leaf out of the ACT’s bag and legalise cannabis for personal use, a Greens MP says.
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South Australia should take a leaf out of the ACT’s book and legalise cannabis for personal use, Greens MLC Tammy Franks says.
Canberrans aged 18 and over are now allowed to grow up to two plants and possess 50 grams of cannabis, after a Labor Bill passed on Wednesday. There will be a four-plant limit for households.
Ms Franks says treating personal cannabis use as a criminal matter instead of a health concern had failed SA.
“We have a lot to learn from the ACT on this,” she said. “The war on drugs approach causes enormous harm.
“It drives people away from getting help when they need it and exposes them to a dangerous black market.”
Ms Franks will move a motion in parliament to observe the ACT and follow their lead.
“People are interested in the conversation (about personal use) but we’re at least six months away from anything reasonable,” she said, adding that ACT Labor was very different to SA Labor.
The ACT Legislative Assembly passed Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson’s private members bill on Wednesday with support from the Greens.
Mr Pettersson squashed concern that legalising the drug might clash with federal drug laws, saying he was “very confident” there wouldn’t be any problems.
Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay told the assembly it was time to treat drug addiction like a health issue rather than an issue of “right and wrong”, which is why the laws would be accompanied by more drug and alcohol services and the introduction of specific drug courts.
He acknowledged possessing and growing cannabis would remain a federal offence, and the risk of prosecution was “not entirely removed”, but “in practice” the laws would not apply.
A review of the laws will be conducted within three years.
The ACT’s Health Minister needs to sign off on when the law would come into effect.
Mr Pettersson said a defence exists for cannabis use under Commonwealth law if the use is excused or justified by state or territory law.
“Commonwealth law has been written with the express understanding that there are differences,” Mr Pettersson said.
Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter said the bill was a matter for the ACT, but where Commonwealth laws applied they remained enforceable.
A spokesman for federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said any problems with Commonwealth law were a matter for the Attorney-General, but the federal government did not support legalising cannabis for recreational use.
It’s not the first time laws introduced by the territory have clashed with federal laws.
In 2013, the capital legalised same-sex marriage only to have the federal government revoke the law after it took a challenge to the High Court.
Before that, in 1995, the Northern Territory legalised voluntary euthanasia only to have the federal government later legislate to stop the nation’s territories from specifically introducing assisted dying.
— with AAP
