It Looks Like A Lot Of Aussies Support Legalising Cannabis
Over 97 percent of Australians support legalising cannabis for recreational use according to the Greens’ lengthy public consultation on their bill. The consultation — which surveyed 8,916 individuals consisting largely of young people — showed unprecedented support for the first ever bill in Australia to legalise (and regulate) cannabis usage for adults throughout the country.
The legalisation of cannabis for recreational use has been a long time coming for Australia, given the wave of countries in North America and Europe adopting frameworks for a regulated system that deemphasises criminalisation and policing. At the last Federal Election, the Legalise Cannabis Party picked up the most votes they’d ever received, even winning a few seats across a few states. And now, thanks to the Greens’ in-depth report, we know it’s something people – young people especially – very much want.
But there’s a lot more in this report, so we’ve taken the liberty of going through it so that you don’t have to. Yes, you’re welcome. Junkee also chatted to Senator David Shoebridge — who is spearheading the bill — about what legalising cannabis would mean for Australia and how young people will be impacted by it.
What Is The Legalising Cannabis Bill?
The Greens have drafted a bill to legalise cannabis for adult recreational use that they plan on introducing to Federal Parliament for consideration within the coming months. The bill was formulated after Senator Shoebridge — on behalf of the Greens — became aware that legalisation on a national scale was constitutionally possible.
Instead of waiting for the states and territories to implement their own cannabis laws, the Greens seek to create a broad national bill. In order to ensure its popularity, they surveyed a large group of young people, cannabis users, and those wanting to learn more about the bill. A bill they say will create a “grassroots” market with an anticipated public revenue stream of $28 billion in the first nine years of operation.
Senator Shoebridge is obviously passionate about bringing about cannabis law reform. He pictures a society where young people don’t have to worry about getting busted over a small amount of cannabis.
“Imagine being able to go to a music festival and not have a bunch of drug dogs lined up to test you… [if] you’ve got to joint in your pocket and you’re not fearful of the cops stopping you and searching you and harassing you and dragging you into the criminal justice system. That is, for me, the primary harm reduction measure,” Shoebridge told Junkee.
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What Does The Legalising Cannabis Report Say?
As mentioned, the Greens undertook a large public survey of 8,916 individuals — mostly young people — to assess the scope of support for a bill to legalise cannabis and how to best approach relevant issues like growing plants at home, advertising, taxation rates, and policing.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report and survey.
Give People Their Cannabis Gummies
If popular culture was to be believed, you’d think everyone wanted to light up and puff away. But according to the report’s respondents, that is not the case.
The most popular way to consume cannabis was through edibles like gummy bears, truffles, or brownies. In fact, 82.08 percent of respondents said edibles were their preferred method of consumption. Joints were still popular, however, at 69.1 percent. Cannabis oil was also relatively high at 65.19 percent.
People Want To Grow Their Own Marijuana
According to the report, 53.95 percent of respondents wanted the ability to grow cannabis at home. 24.34 percent said they’d consider it.
Senator Shoebridge told Junkee that many respondents found a loophole in their draft bill — which was part of the reason the Greens wanted a large public consultation — where people who grow cannabis at home might end up with a fine if they make their own edibles. As a result, the report stated that the Greens “will amend the bill to explicitly allow people to make products like brownies or gummies at home for personal use”. The report also noted that the bill will “explicitly require that grow at home cannabis not be grown in publicly accessible areas”.
The report also noted that there was a majority (57.18 percent) of support for a cap of six cannabis plants per household — as opposed to per individual.
The People Want Cannabis Cafes And Shops
Australians appear to largely support creating a form of “appealing cafe culture” for cannabis — similar to the ones in Europe.
Of the respondents, 68.61 percent said they would prefer to buy and consume products from a cannabis cafe, with 21.06 percent saying they’d prefer to take away. As for purchase method, dispensaries were preferred by 85.31 percent and a large number of people (75.86 percent) chose growers co-ops.
Alternatively, there was strong support for cannabis cafes, dispensaries, and co-ops being able to sell online. 88.17 percent of respondents supported online sales of cannabis products, with 3.91 percent “firmly opposed”. The Greens noted in the report that this reflects how alcohol and tobacco products are available for online purchase so it makes sense for cannabis to have the same accessibility if legalised.
Quality Control And Regulation
Probably the most pressing issue in the legalisation conversation is quality regulation. According to the survey, only 21.98 percent of people said they always knew what was in the cannabis they were buying. On the other hand, 77.91 percent said they’d either had “bad experiences in the past” or thought the quality they were purchasing was “a gamble.”
To counteract this “gamble”, the Greens have proposed quality control and labelling of products that are transparent and indicate potency levels. They also propose the establishment of the Cannabis Australia National Agency who will have the power to mandate labelling requirements for cannabis. These would include safety and dosage information, strength and chemical composition, growing conditions, and other key metrics.
A Gram Will Run You About $13
David Shoebridge and the Greens consulted with the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to come up with their estimated sale price of $13 per gram.
The survey then asked people if that was on par with what they currently paid with 23.85 percent saying it was. 26.03 percent said they paid more and 15.55 percent said they paid less. The Greens said in the report that the “spread of values strongly suggests to us that we have the sale price correct for our costings on tax revenue and competing with the illicit market.”
Penalties
A large part of the support for the legalisation of cannabis in Australia revolves around people wanting less interference with police and the justice system. The proposed bill by the Greens includes penalties for corporations who are in breach of licence conditions to grow, produce, and sell cannabis products.
The report noted that the Greens will amend the provisions to limit penalisation to “unlicensed selling of cannabis products” over the value of $100. This came after some people were concerned that non-commercial sharing with friends would result in penalties. However, there will be a separate penalty offence for those sharing unlicensed products, even under the value of $100.
So will the bill have any power to overturn previous convictions for cannabis possession? “There will be two urgent law reforms that will have to follow at state and territory levels once we get this through the Federal Parliament,” Shoebridge says, “and I say once because we’ve had such strong support for the bill.”
“[Firstly], getting rid of past convictions for cannabis possession because it’s obviously grossly unfair for people who have a criminal record for something which the country has finally decided should not be a crime which is choosing to have a joint rather than a beer,” Shoebridge said. “And the second thing is drug driving laws and getting rid of this ridiculous position that if you’re found with the smallest detectable presence of cannabis in your system while you’re on the roads — not impaired — you can lose your licence and face pretty awful fines. We need drug driving laws that are focused on impairment.”
You Can Still Get Your Medicinal Cannabis
As it stands, the proposed draft bill will make no change to the medicinal cannabis scheme. In the report, the Greens note that they will be amending the bill to specify that their exclusion of big pharmaceutical companies in the regulation and implementation of the recreational use of cannabis is “not intended to bar participation of medicinal cannabis companies”.
How Successful Will The Bill Be?
The report and survey are very encouraging in terms of widespread support — but can the bill get enough government support and pass through both houses of Parliament?
“The prime criticism we’re getting is ‘Why haven’t you already done it?’” Shoebridge said. “So I get the frustration because this is decades too late but we’ve been doing that to build this extraordinarily powerful case and I think we’re in a position now that we’ll bring the actual bill to Parliament next week.”
Trying to get support from both sides of Parliament would be no easy feat, but the Senator remains optimistic.
“What’s been surprising is how little opposition [there’s] been to it,” he said. “There’s a kind of embarrassed silence amongst the coalition… Labor’s response has been a very quiet whispery response that says, ‘We don’t have any current plans.’ So quiet you can almost not hear it.”
“Our job over the next six months or so is to build that community support and to change Labor’s plans from no current plans to Legalise Cannabis to ‘Yep, they’re on board’,” Shoebridge said. “I can’t guarantee that we will get that kind of sensible cooperation from Labor… but we have done everything we possibly can to build the evidence base and we’re bringing this to Parliament with a generous spirit to share it and work it through and achieve it over the next month.”
If, for whatever reason, the bill doesn’t pass and gets “killed” off early next year, Shoebridge said that wouldn’t be an end to the fight to legalise cannabis. “We will then have 12 solid months of campaigning into the next Federal Election to make this a primary issue so we absolutely get it done then.”
Read the full report here.
Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on X.
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