By John Campbell
MELBOURNE — The Victorian state council of the Liberal Party voted overwhelmingly on May 12 against decriminalising marijuana. While the vote is not binding on Liberal MPs, statements by leading parliamentarians, including Premier Jeff Kennett, indicate strong opposition to the proposals to decriminalise possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana and home cultivation of up to five plants.
The state government is due to debate the recommendations of the Pennington report on drug law reform on May 31.
Many marijuana users now wonder why the premier presented such a friendly face to the legalisation lobby before the March 30 state election. Kennett's comments to the media convinced many voters that the report would be accepted by his party as the balanced opinion of experts and a sound basis for community debate.
"I voted Liberal. The main reason, decriminalisation. I think he did that to get the smokers' vote, but that is important to us", Gareth Walker, a first time voter from Melbourne, told the Age following the election.
Talkback radio and the letters pages of Melbourne newspapers have been crammed with responses for and against decriminalisation. The National Party, the Salvation Army and the Police Association have issued the usual denunciations, while the medical profession remains divided.
The Australian Medical Association opposed decriminalisation on health grounds. Many doctors, however, including the outspoken deputy director of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research, Nick Crofts, present an open-and-shut case for decriminalisation on the grounds that legal force has consistently failed to control drug use.
Marijuana has the potential to harm some people, especially if it is abused. But as advocates of decriminalisation point out, the illegality of the drug not only fails to prevent large numbers of people from using it, but also denies people the ability to make well-informed decisions about the drug.
Marijuana has been strongly identified with youth counter-cultures from the 1960s onwards, and anti-marijuana laws have often served as a pretext for police harassment of non-conformist elements.
Marijuana was criminalised in Australian states following its prohibition in the USA, where certain major chemical and textile corporations played a large part in demonising the cannabis plant and conniving to have it banned.
Pro-legalisation groups point to some of economic and environmental benefits which would also flow from legalising cannabis cultivation. The hemp plant is considered a viable or preferable alternative to existing sources for paper, textile and fibreboard production, and medicinally for relief of common health problems such as glaucoma, menstrual pain and nausea.
Do not be surprised, however, if these issues do not feature in the parliamentary debate. With the state election now safely over, Kennett's flirtation with the decriminalisation lobby may have outlived its purpose.