The fifty year prohibition of cannabis has bee an absolute failure, sucking up billions of dollars of taxes, and incarcirating thousands of people daily. Cannabis has been used as a medicene for centuries and as more research proceeds, more uses are found for it.It only takes 30% of the water used on cotton to reap the same results from cannabis products.It is Australias second biggest cash crop,after wheat and yet(according to CIA figures) the total yield is just 4,000 acres. Cannabis doesn't always lead to harder drugs like beer doesn't always lead to metho. This 'one size fits all' legislation simply bans those who might get some benefit from cannabis use or research.

With Mardi Grass, Nimbin’s annual cannabis law reform protest-ival a matter of weeks away the NSW police have declared that after 12 previous years of peaceful protest, this year will see the introduction of “zero tolerance policing” of the event.

Interesting to note it is approaching three years since Bob Carr, (then NSW Premier) said “The complexity of an issue does not provide a licence to walk away while ordinary people suffer and acquire criminal records simply for treating their illnesses and relieving their suffering in the only way that works for them. With a sensible mixture of compassion and common sense we can make a medical cannabis regime work in this State, as it works in other jurisdictions around the world. That is this Government’s intention and I look forward to introducing the draft exposure bill at the earliest opportunity.” (Bob Carr - Hansard May 20, 2003).

I wonder how “zero tolerance policing” of a political rally whose sole objective is to change cannabis laws fits in with this stated government goal?

It doesn’t.

I also wonder why the South Australian opposition isn’t flouting a statistic showing a dramatic increase in mental health problems across the state when the cannabis laws were relaxed in the first instance?

There isn’t one.

As a long term user of cannabis, (23 years, 10 years daily) I am surely addicted to cannabis, but I make no apologies for being so and firmly reject your need to “treat my condition”. Despite the best efforts of law enforcement here in Australia I have grown into a man as a member of Australia’s cannabis culture.

I am tired of the legislated bigotry and the continuing attempts at cultural genocide we, Australia’s cannabis culture, are subjected to.

-- generic_hippie

-- "I am tired of the legislated bigotry and the continuing attempts at cultural genocide we, Australia’s cannabis culture, are subjected to."

Right! The excuses and "harms" spewed by the prohibitionists are so lame and so regularly refuted, that at times it seems what they really hate is they associate cannabis with the "dirty, rebellious hippies." Hippies too, have been demonized to the extreme. What hippies were/are really about was/is a noble experiment.

http://www.hippy.com/php/article-198.html

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow.html

Look JayTee and others,

do you have any positive solutions to some of the problems associated with cannabis use? If you believe simplistically that there are no problems whatsoever with cannabis you are sadly mistaken.

The reports referred to have, by and large, looked at issues such as toxicity, neurotoxicity and immediate psychological issues. Newer research reveals that there is some real harm for a set of people, namely some kids/teenagers and some young adults. Recent research about brain development and behaviour shows changes well into the early twenties.
Except for the case of latent psychosis being activated, which is quite dramatic, it's not a case that people just noticeably 'flip out' in pandemic proportions. Depression and personality changes are subtle and insidious for enough of a subset of people that it is a real concern.

To deny that some have an adverse reaction to cannabis is callous.

So what should be done?

Kids and young adults are not very good regulators of their own behaviour even when facts are 'presented' to them. Young males and cars being a good example. Kids turning up to school so stoned that they can't add up is a worry, isn't it? So what do you do?

I suggest make the recent research on cannabis well known. i.e., it should be discussed in Schools. Counselling for kids and their parents needs more support. And when it arrives make the cannabis susceptibility testing available and accessible. I would certainly endorse TV advertisements if they were objective and unbiased-'drugs are bad' is not good enough.

While hemp has received a bad deal due to association, things are changing on that front and it is now being commercially trailed in Australia. The medical and hemp debate is irrelevant to the general cannabis use argument.

Arguing for radical solutions like 'let it rip for free' only makes it harder to make 'small' gains like decriminalisation and the introduction of solutions to help those who are vulnerable.

I for one wish that the evidence that is available now was available when I first started using cannabis.

I firmly believe that continuing the criminalisation of the cannabis industry is no solution. Scarring people for life with criminal records for experimentation or even dependence on cannabis causes more harm to the wider community than making treatment available for those who request it. Note request it as opposed to being legislatively forced into it.

Further, I believe that the continuing persecution of the cannabis culture to safe guard "a subset of people" whilst allowing the monopoly on mind altering substances that is the retail alcohol industry a free reign on the state of mind of recreational drug users across this country is a mistake, as with any mono-culture.

Your suggestion to make well known the research on cannabis, to teach it in schools, is a good one, how ever the chances of truth making it though to the education system without a healthy dose of manipulative fear are minimal.

A good book: www.justaplant.com

But can you really see a book that honest, sensible and forthright being introduced into our education system?

The reality is no. Look at the reasons why not, you begin to see the blatant bigotry we as cannabis users are subjected to on a daily basis.

You ask for positive solutions?

End the bigotry of cannabis prohibition, that would be a positive step. Then perhaps when the fear of persecution has gone, perhaps then we can discuss any necessary "treatment" options you have in mind for me...

generic_hippie

lets see if we can take it a step at a time.

Do you believe there should be no controls over cannabis use?

I looked at the book and I thought it was crap.