ACT Government’s decision to legalise cannabis is a disaster for road safety
What a dopey decision the ACT Government has made in legalising cannabis. I cannot for the life of me understand the logic behind this. The joint’s gone mad, writes Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.
Opinion
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What a dopey decision the ACT Government has made in legalising cannabis. As the Federal Minister with overall responsibility for road safety, I cannot for the life of me understand the logic behind this. The joint’s gone mad.
They might want the ACT on a high but this is a low point in politics in the capital.
Ask any highway patrol officer — veteran or rookie — and they will tell you drug users are a scourge on our roads. No emergency services personnel would say mixing drugs with driving is conducive to safe driving. What haze were these politicians in when they thought this was a good idea?
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I put to the ACT Government: can you look in the eye those who have lost a family member or a close friend and tell them that their lives are not as important as loosening the noose on dopes who engage in reckless and unconscionable behaviour by drug driving? What message does this send to our young people? What message does this send to our hardworking emergency services personnel?
Rather than roll a joint, they need to roll back this dopey decision.
At a time when community groups and governments in Australia and around the world are working together on ways to reduce road tolls, the mind boggles why anyone would increase the risk to road users.
And the risk to road safety as a result of passing this into law should not be underestimated. As of last month, already 826 people had died on our roads across the country.
That is 826 people who won’t be sitting around the Christmas table in a few months’ time … 826 families whose lives will never be the same. This awful number does not account for the tens of thousands of people injured in road crashes every year.
In Colorado in the US where “recreational” marijuana was legalised in 2014, studies show an initial spike in road trauma and the overall health impact on communities in that state has increased with more people presenting to hospitals due to the effects of the drug, including psychosis.
In New Zealand, researchers found that those who smoked cannabis regularly and had smoked before driving, were more likely to be injured in a car crash. Even when the influence of alcohol was taken into account, cannabis users were more than twice as likely to be the cause of a fatal crash as to be one of the victims.
We know, for example, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK has directly linked marijuana use to psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. This is a significant concern and one the ACT may not have fully taken into account.
Almost a quarter of Australia’s drug and alcohol treatments services are being provided to people identifying cannabis as their principle drug of concern.
Perhaps the most sobering example of why cannabis use and driving on our roads is a dangerous combination is the tragic case of a young mother who crashed her car in NSW in 2015 killing her two-year-old daughter and critically injuring her 11-month-old son.
She allegedly fell asleep at the wheel after smoking cannabis.
A young child’s life cut tragically and unnecessarily short.
As a father of three, I want to ensure the roads are as safe as possible, not only for my family, but for every Australian road user.
Get off the grass and reverse this reckless decision.
Michael McCormack is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development