MEDICINAL cannabis advocate Lucy Haslam says she “won’t be fighting” to legalise pot as The Greens call for a major drug reform.
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The Tamworth mother wasn’t overly concerned the push to legalise marijuana for recreational use would stifle progress on the medical front, but stopped short of condemning the policy.
“From a harm-minimisation perspective there’s some merit with that,” Mrs Haslam told The Leader.
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“Medicinal progress has been so slow, it can’t set it back too much.”
She said it would be ignorant for people to apply the argument against recreational use to suppress medicinal advocacy and there was a huge double standard when it came to drugs.
The sick need support, recreational users don’t need support.
- Lucy Haslam
“Alcohol and cigarettes are far more dangerous than illicit cannabis use,” she said.
“The war on drugs has been a ridiculous failure.
“People would be surprised at the amount of people they know who use cannabis and they’re productive, employed and meaningful people who live well.”
She said people using it “don’t go out and king hit people”.
“It’s not quite the demon the powers-that-be like you to think,” she said.
However, Mrs Haslam said she wouldn’t be fighting to legalise it.
“It’s not my battle to fight,” she said.
“The sick need support, recreational users don’t need support.”
NSW Senator David Leyonhjelm backed the Greens stance and said legalising marijuana could free-up police resources.
“More than one-in-three Australians has used cannabis, yet almost 80,000 cannabis-related arrests are made nationally each year,” Senator Leyonhjelm said.
“This is an appalling waste of Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force resources to the tune of almost $100 million a year, according to Parliamentary Budget Office costings commissioned by the Liberal Democrats in 2016.”
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt slammed the proposal and said it risked the health of Australians.
"Marijuana is a gateway drug,” Mr Hunt said.
“The risk of graduating to ice or to heroin from extended marijuana use is real and documented.”
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the country’s current approach to illicit drugs was an “unmitigated disaster”.
“We can take this out of the hands of drug dealers and crime gangs,” Senator Di Natale said.