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‘Staring people in the face’: The 22-year-old case to legalise cannabis
A 22-year-old High Court case over grain patents is central to a Greens’ pitch to legalise cannabis nationally, with the party claiming it has a way to circumvent the criminal laws set by the states.
The Greens say there is a constitutional basis for introducing legislation this year that would allow the regulation and sale of cannabis and will announce their intention to do so in parliament this week.
The Greens have announced a push to legalise cannabis nationally.Credit: Getty
Last week the NSW government announced it would defer drug users from the court system under a two-strike system, but not decriminalise illicit substances, a decision that drew criticism from Dan Howard SC, the commissioner of the ice inquiry that handed down 109 recommendations for reform.
Greens senator and the party’s justice spokesman, David Shoebridge – who said in his first speech to parliament that he would legalise cannabis – said experts and government inquiries kept pointing to the failure of the war on drugs, “and how heavy-handed policing and the criminal justice system is causing harm, not fixing the problem”.
“When state governments are captive to law and order agendas and endlessly increasing police budgets despite all the best evidence, it’s time for the federal government to enforce sensible drug laws,” Shoebridge said.
The Greens took advice from constitutional law expert, Australian Catholic University dean of law Patrick Keyzer, who said the 2000 case Grain Pool of WA v Commonwealth confirmed the ability of the federal government to regulate plant variety rights.
Keyzer said the Commonwealth could regulate cannabis strains as plant varieties and list them in a schedule over which the government had exclusive control.
“The answer in a sense has been staring people in the face because anybody who had visited their GP in the last two years would be aware of the fact they can prescribe CBD oil for all sorts of things … so the Therapeutic Goods Administration has obviously got a schedule where they’re allowing manufacturers to register goods,” Keyzer said.
“You could say to the manufacturers of cannabis varieties, register your cannabis strains on the Australian cannabis register and then you can have a licensing scheme for sales, just like for alcohol, but the Commonwealth could run it, and you could tax it because it’s a good.”
The Greens are drafting a bill they say will encompass the appropriate legal sanctions for unlawful sales, create tax measures, and restrict the alcohol and tobacco industries from becoming involved.
Greens senator David Shoebridge says state drug laws have failed.Credit: Rhett Wyman
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the government didn’t propose to legalise the production, sale and use of cannabis.
Cannabis has already been decriminalised in the ACT, where the government earlier this year announced it would decriminalise other small amounts of illicit drugs.
Thailand this year legalised the cultivation and possession of cannabis, following Canada, Uruguay and several US states. In 2020, New Zealand put the question of legalisation to a referendum, with the population narrowly deciding against it.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said last week his government didn’t support Howard’s recommendation to decriminalise illicit drugs. “Drugs have no place in our society,” he said on Wednesday.
In February, the Victorian government ruled out supporting a proposed law to decriminalise illicit drugs.
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