David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Forty per cent of Australians have used cannabis. But it's not the wealthy, the privileged or politicians who go to prison for smoking a joint. Do you know why? Because the war on drugs isn't about helping people; it's a war on class and race. It's students, people with disabilities, First Nations people, people from South-West Sydney and people from regional Australia whose lives are threatened by the policing of a victimless crime. This government is hooked on dragging our most vulnerable through the criminal justice system for using the same substance that over 10 million people across this country have already used. When it comes to cannabis, it's policing and the war on drugs that are destroying lives, not the plant.

It doesn't have to be that way. We can legalise cannabis at a federal level. When we announced that policy earlier this week, we saw a whirlwind of support. That support came not only from drug experts and academics but from the wider Australian community, who want to see change—people who know that, if the law makes almost half of us criminals, something is deeply wrong; people who've been waiting decades for the criminal justice system to stop ruining lives over smoking a joint; people who question why a drug that is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco is the one with jail time attached.

The Attorney-General has so far refused to propose legislation to legalise cannabis and has refused to support it but hasn't given a reason. That's because there aren't any good ones. This has been done around the world, and doing the same here would improve millions of lives. It's time. Let's legalise it.