The Greens, Australia’s third-largest political party, announced Wednesday that its Legalizing Cannabis Bill 2023 was voted down in the Senate by a margin of 13 to 24 votes, marking a setback in its push for reform.
"We took a big step today from treating cannabis as part of the failing ‘war on drugs' and instead putting forward a model that is safer, reduces harms and delivers for the millions of Australians who just want us to legalize," stated the bill's backer, Greens senator and justice spokesperson David Shoebridge.
"The support for this bill across the community is enormous and it's why we know cannabis legalization in this country is inevitable," Shoebridge added. “The Labor and Coalition parties joined together to try and hold Australia back in the 1950's by blocking this desperately needed reform."
The senator highlighted that this was still a historic action, as it was the first time the Federal Parliament had voted on a plan to legalize cannabis across the country, adding that it won't be the last.
In June 2024, the Australian Senate committee rejected this legislation, stating “Ultimately, the committee is concerned that the legalization of cannabis for adult recreational use would create as many, if not more, problems than the bill is attempting to resolve. While endeavoring to do so, the bill does not address several significant concerns, for example, ensuring that children and young people cannot access cannabis (particularly home-grow), managing risky cannabis use, and effective oversight of THC content.”
The Greens, however, announced that it planned to introduce the bill into parliament later this year, and it did. Despite Wednesday's failure, the party does not plan to stop and is pushing hard for change.
Shoebridge said that the Greens "don't pretend that the drug is without harm; we just know that legalizing it would radically reduce the harm." He noted the importance of giving adults the right to choose and urged Parliament to start treating them as such. Shoebridge further stressed the need to move away from the influence of big pharma, big alcohol and big tobacco.
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‘A Bloody Disgrace‘
The bill specifies that excluding big pharma from the scheme does not aim to bar participation by Australia-based medical cannabis companies. It proposes the establishment of the Cannabis Australia National Agency, a statutory body responsible for registering cannabis strains and regulating cannabis-related activities, including cultivation, possession, production, sale of cannabis products, operation of cannabis cafes, and managing imports and exports.
Shoebridge highlighted government data showing that 8.8 million adult Australians have consumed cannabis, stating that the Labor and Liberal parties’ stance effectively labels these individuals as "criminals." He called this situation "a bloody disgrace."
He concluded, "My office keeps hearing from people using cannabis to deal with anxiety or pain, or just to relax. We think that adults should have the right to do just that. If choosing cannabis instead of products from pharmaceutical corporations is working for you, as it does for many Australians, then you should have that choice. If you'd rather have a brownie than a beer, or a gummy than a cigarette, of course, you should be allowed to do that. One day soon we will be able to sit together in a cannabis cafe and chill out together – preferably with a locally grown organic latte. Labor and the Coalition can't hold us in the 1950's for much longer."
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Photo: Courtesy of Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash
