You’ve read it all before and you’ll read it all again. The groundhog day that is cannabis regulation (of sorts) in the ACT is a microcosm of what’s happening ( or not as the case is) in Australia.
By the way, that hasn’t stopped US and Canadian companies pile in to the country in 2019 and start acquisitions. Essentially people are getting rich but nobody, in reality, can really access medical cannabis not without jumping through more hoops than a dog at Crufts.
And, as for recreational, don’t even consider it.
Meanwhile the status quo is maintained and police and authorities fight an ever more pointless rearguard action in a directed by politicians war on drugs whilst a very few people make a lot of money in the “regulated” market and even more on the black market.
The Canberra Times reports
Chief Minister Andrew Barr has acknowledged it would still be risky possessing and growing cannabis even if the drug is legalised in the ACT, because it would still be illegal under Commonwealth law.
However Mr Barr says he will not lobby the federal government to relax the criminal code or seek a memorandum of understanding with ACT Policing to resolve the tension.
A parliamentary committee examining the private member’s bill from Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson is due to report back on Thursday.
The bill would remove cannabis possession under 50g as an offence for adults under the ACT’s criminal code, thus legalising it.
However cannabis is still a controlled drug under Commonwealth law and the constitution states that where state law is inconsistent with federal law, the latter wins.
In a letter to the committee, Mr Barr admitted it was still uncertain how the legislation would interact with Commonwealth law.
Another great article from the ABC here and well worth a read , it covers a number of the issues raised by what is or isn’t happening in the ACT
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-10/legalising-weed-in-canberra-is-not-going-to-be-easy/11188010