Today the Greens Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023 came to a vote in the Senate and was disappointingly blocked by the Labor and Coalition parties in a 13 to 24 vote against progress.
Nevertheless this is a historic day. It’s the first time the Federal Parliament has voted on a plan to legalise cannabis across the country … and it won’t be the last.
Greens Senator and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge said:
“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 it!
“The support for this bill across the community is enormous and it’s why we know cannabis legalisation in this country is inevitable.
“The Labor and Coalition parties joined together to try and hold Australia back in the 1950’s by blocking this desperately needed reform.
“They keep pretending the war on drugs is working and that we all live in a world where drug use almost never happens – like the occasions when their own MPs are caught with drugs and swear it is a one off.
“Government data shows 8.8 million of adult Australians have consumed cannabis. The Labor and Liberal parties are happy to call all of these people criminals. That’s a bloody disgrace.
“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.
