Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Scarr for his considered response. I have a few responses, but before I do that I also want to especially thank Senator Shoebridge for bringing the Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023 before the Senate. As senators are aware, we deal with politics and policy in this place. The politics of this is that the Australian people want to see marijuana, cannabis—whatever you want to call it—decriminalised or legalised. We've seen the rise of the Legalise Cannabis Party. They're now represented in three states: Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. They're running high-profile Senate candidates and they nearly knocked off One Nation at the last federal election. Australians are voting for this, and we need to listen. This bill is a pathway forward. The Greens have been campaigning for this bill for decades. We need to catch up with the Australian community on this.

I want to tell a quick story. I don't have a lot of time. I was recently at my mother's birthday party when she turned 80. It wasn't something I necessarily expected at my mother's party, but I got accosted by one of her friends. She'd heard that the Greens wanted to legalise marijuana. She told me a story about her brother, who's had mental health issues. He'd been a long-term cannabis user and had schizophrenia and other issues. She was irate and blamed the Greens and others for this. We had a really good chat. I said, 'Can you tell me where your brother gets his marijuana?' Of course, she couldn't. She said, 'Well, it's illegal.' And I said, 'So he probably buys it from a dealer,' just like a lot of young people buy it from dealers and will always buy it from dealers and, Senator Scarr, those who have predispositions to mental illness and are in psychological distress will buy it from a dealer or grow it themselves. We got to chatting, and I said, 'Well, don't you think we should take a harm-minimisation approach?' At the end of the day, they're buying an unregulated product. We don't know what's in it. In California, to use Senator Scarr's example, the government regulates it, and a big majority of organised crime was taken out because they were signed up to the scheme. The growers who were growing it illegally are now the government's suppliers. So, yes, of course, there's going to be an organised crime component. There always will be.

Interestingly enough, Senator Scarr, the marijuana out there that is doing damage—and I totally accept that it can be dangerous if it's used incorrectly—is synthetic marijuana, which is designed to get around the current rules and regulations, including roadside drug tests. Synthetic marijuana is extremely dangerous. It has 300 to 400 times the THC level of other marijuana that is grown naturally. It is a scourge. This is where organised crime has come in. We need a product that's regulated and works.

From personal experience, I'm standing here in the Australian Senate today as a cannabis user. I am on cannabis right now. I have CBD in my system because I am part of the legal scheme, and it has been good for me. I explained my personal experience to this lady, and I must say that I think I won her over in the end. I said that my lived experience of this is that I have learned one really important thing from being a medicinal cannabis user, which is that it's all about dosage, just like anything else in your life. You might have a gin and tonic or a beer after work, but you don't go and drink a bottle or two of gin after work.

Our cultural attachment to marijuana in this country is that so many people have used it for recreation. I don't have a problem with that if it's done the right way, but people are taking too much of this stuff. Kids are smoking ridiculous amounts. They're doing bucket bongs, and all the kinds of things that I did when I was their age, I confess. However, we don't have an adult, mature conversation about using this stuff correctly. That's what I've learnt. I have a very small amount of this. I work with a doctor. To Senator Roberts's point, I have changed my prescription three times since I've been on the scheme to get it right, and I've worked with the right people to do that. I explained to this woman that, if we had the right information and the right approach to this, a harm-minimisation approach, then your brother would have received advice a long time ago about smoking this stuff in large quantities. By the way, there is some uncertainty around whether schizophrenia is triggered by THC and marijuana products. There are clear examples of psychosis and other examples we have talked about in the committee.

Once again, it's our cultural attitude to marijuana. It starts in places like this. The stigmatised approach we saw from Senator Cash's contribution today is the problem. If we treat, understand and accept this as I do—and I know Senator Roberts and others do—cannabis can absolutely have benefits. I believe that is my personal story. If it's done the right way, then it can be good for you. It has so much more to offer. There are thousands of compounds in cannabinoids that we don't yet fully understand, and we're researching them. This drug has been used for tens of thousands of years by human beings. It has been part of a lot of cultures.

The war on drugs started in the US years ago. It has been a big part of the problem. We need to destigmatise it. We need a legal pathway forward. We need to accept it can have benefits and we need to educate people on how to do it properly. We need to get away from synthetic cannabis. We need to take the money from legalising it and put it into harm minimisation services. And we need to get it right. The Australian people want that from us. Please, Senators, look at this bill today and vote for it.