Page 271 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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told that, even if the drug is pure, there are risks that can have negative impacts on the person and that it is dangerous. But ultimately we leave the decision to take that drug up to the individual, because we know that just saying no does not work.
The Canberra Liberals do not want people making informed choices. They think they can tell you, “Just say no,” and that you will obey. That clearly has not worked. This attitude even costs lives. Every time we send sniffer dogs to festivals and scare people into ingesting all of their drugs at once, we cause harm. Every time we refuse to test pills and we miss a batch laced with dangerous chemicals, we cause harm. Those opposite refuse to help young people because they are more concerned with moralising on drug use. They know their policies do not work. They know that the status quo does not work. But they know how they feel about people who use drugs, and that is what drives them.
Those opposite are happy to stick their heads in the sand, like their New South Wales counterparts. We are seeing their approach across the border, where music festivals are being shuttered due to the obstruction of hard-right conservatives. Make no mistake: if the Canberra Liberals get into power we will see the same thing happen here, if we have not already.
Far too often politicians put their political standing ahead of good policy. We see this all the time with our public response to hard drug use. We must not shame or condemn those who use these substances; we must help them. We put up false barriers to accessing treatments because we are too worried about being seen as kind to these people. These people deserve to be treated poorly in the eyes of many for their apparent moral failures. How wrong they are.
As a community we are responsible for deciding which substances are legal and illegal. The distinction between legal and illegal drugs is often based not on harm but on outdated prejudices and stigma. Cannabis is just one of these substances. It is 46 times less dangerous than alcohol and 90 times less dangerous than tobacco. It is so commonplace that one in three of us have used it, with one in 10 of us having used it in the past year. We criminalise this substance and throw people in jail for possessing even tiny amounts of it. It is madness. That is why I think we need to legalise cannabis.
Community sentiment has shifted, with 54 per cent of Canberrans supporting the legalisation of the personal use of cannabis. Our community does not want to lock up predominantly young people for holding the tiny bit of pot that they so often get punished for. They do not think throwing the addicted in jail is good rehab. And they do not want to support the black market and criminal gangs. The Canberra community believes that it is time we took a stand and joined the progressive parts of the world in legalising this substance.
We have seen the conservative approach to drugs around the world as well. The war on drugs in the United States, for example, has been a massive failure. With an opioid crisis gripping America, we have seen big pharmaceutical companies complicit in pushing addictive substances to patients. We have seen the human misery of the drug trade in Mexico, the major supplier of the United States black market, where
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