The Guardian reports
New South Wales government members have suggested cannabis reform is inevitable in the state after a parliamentary inquiry found the current regime is discriminatory because people with means can obtain medicinal cannabis legally, while others are criminalised.
The NSW upper house inquiry released its landmark report into the effectiveness of cannabis regulation last week. The recommendations to decriminalise and consider legalisation were backed by six of the seven committee members – including Labor, Liberal and crossbench Legislative Council members. One Liberal member voted against the recommendations.
The report said NSW should “decriminalise personal use and possession of cannabis”.
The government should then “engage in a staged process of reform and review and consider legislating to legalise the use of cannabis by adults in a manner that eliminates the illicit market so far as is possible and creates a safe, regulated and accessible statewide market for legal cannabis”.
The Labor MLCs Stephen Lawrence and Cameron Murphy, who were part of the committee, said decriminalisation and potential legalisation of cannabis was inevitable because all MLCs except one voted for the recommendations.
Lawrence, who moved for the recommendations to be included in the report, said the cross-party support showed “the community has moved on from some kind of shock-horror reaction to cannabis”.
“The evidence in the inquiry shows the advantaged have designed a system where they are allowed to smoke their easily obtained medicinal cannabis, often for recreational purposes, while we punish the rest sometimes harshly,” the Labor MLC told Guardian Australia.
The committee – chaired by the Legalise Cannabis party MLC Jeremy Buckingham – recommended the Minns government immediately axe the maximum two-year custodial sentence for people found with a small quantity of marijuana and instead replace it with a fine.
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