Jeremy Buckingham, the Legalise Cannabis NSW MP who won a seat in the last election, tried to get the government to make a move on the cannabis laws but Premier Minns dug his heels in.
Next best option, Jeremy chaired an Upper House committee inquiry he initiated which has released its final report into “The impacts of the regulatory framework for cannabis in New South Wales”.
There were nine MP’s on the committee, three from Labor, two from the Liberals, John Ruddick from the Libertarians, Cate Faehrmann from the Greens, and Robert Borsack from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers who was the deputy chair.
There were 360 submissions and five public hearings and the result was seven Recommendations from eight Findings, many of which reiterate what we have been saying for years. No-brainer stuff like just because cannabis is in your system does not mean you’re impaired and the driving laws need to be altered to reflect this.
Basically, the committee recommended a “staged law reform process towards a legalised, regulated model for cannabis in NSW”, exactly what we’ve been dreaming up for decades.
It also recommended Canada as having a good system for us to learn from and made a point of saying the government needs to support the local medical cannabis industry which is being overrun by imports.
I like that in the Chair’s foreword, Jeremy says that while recognising that the current availability of medical cannabis was a significant step forward it also now means that a person’s criminal status depends on whether they can afford a prescription.
I’ve also liked watching Jeremy, who I’m sure would often rather be home in his garden near Bellingen, plug away on his major mission, which is all in the name of the Party. He moved his whole family to Sydney after getting elected.
We get a lot of pressure to develop other policies, which is often tempting but it’s a fact that re-educating people on the potential of the cannabis plant is more than a full-time job.
By the end of this committee’s hearing virtually all of the committee had to agreed it’s time for the laws to change because of what they had seen and heard from all sorts of people involved with weed, from scientists and hippies to police and gardeners.
Most members of Parliament have such an endless list of demands and responses to deal with every day they barely get time to focus long enough to dig deep into issues and with cannabis there is a lot of bullshit to unpack, like a century of lies and propaganda.
That’s why Bob Carr had a weeklong Drug Summit in 1999 and insisted all MPs attend. With the Legalise Cannabis Party’s single issue focus we hope we can finally get some movement.
The committee recommended a staged approach to cannabis law reform. To start, the Government should remove draconian custodial sentences for possession of small quantities of cannabis, then decriminalisation of cannabis use and possession, and ultimately move towards a safe, regulated, legalised cannabis market.
His case for change got a good boost this week with Roy Morgan releasing their new data after asking 69,000 Australians if, “In your opinion should the smoking of marijuana be made legal – or remain illegal?”
The data shows 48% said yes, while 41% said no, with 11% undecided. In 2019 it was 42% yes, and 49% no; and in 2015 it was 33% yes, and 56% no; so clearly it’s a big and steady change. Roy called it, “a decisive shift in national sentiment towards legalisation.”
Finally, the majority of people are ready, but are the politicians?
