'Alcohol is way worse': Fresh calls to legalise cannabis

SHOULD cannabis be legalised? Are we wasting money and police resources by cracking down on the use of an "extraordinary plant”?

We asked: Should cannabis be legal in Australia? Picture: Amber Gibson

SHOULD cannabis be legalised?

With the dust settling on another successful MardiGrass at Nimbin, this is the core question we are left pondering.

Nimbin Hemp Embassy president Michael Balderstone has long made his thoughts clear, saying: "It's an extraordinary plant and as a medicine it has no equal.”

We asked our Facebook audience for their thoughts on whether the drug should be legalised, and the response was a resounding "yes”.

Janos Ertz said the war on drugs was a "waste of money and police resources and creates a criminal underworld in the supply chain”.

Leigh Heffernan also believed cannabis should be legalised and sold shops like tobacco.

"Tax the hell out of it, create jobs, free up prisons, save $1100 per hour of tax payers' money that the police force spends busting cannabis, let the police concentrate on the other deadly drugs,” Leigh wrote on The Star's Facebook page.

"Spend the money made on cannabis on school and hospitals. Look at how well Canada has done by doing this.”

Shannon Kay said Australia was "slow and stupid not legalising it and regulating and taxing it”.

Kristy Gavin Stevens wrote: "Pot smokers are not bad people; alcoholism is way worse.”

Michael McCaughey said prohibition had created more problems than it had solved.

"Medicinal (cannabis) is available... from licensed growers... through 'some' sympathetic doctors... if you can get through the red tape and pay the premium (non PBS) price,” he wrote.

Annette Hotko said: "It would be better if pot smokers are treated like alcohol drinkers. Prohibition never works.”

Sharon Lee said cannabis was "a medicine for many, many children and adults”.

The health benefits of cannabis were also spruiked by Marica Philip, who said it could cut out a lot of the pharmaceutical drugs "that can actually cause more health problems”.

Robert Stevens asked the big question: "Can any one honestly say they want to keep wasting billions of dollars prohibiting cannabis?”

But Robyn Spruce said she did not believe cannabis should be "set free”, however she was open to the idea of using the drug for medicinal purposes.

"Let's wait and see without protests, anger etc,” she said.