The Legalise Cannabis Party will launch its NSW Senate campaign outside the office of Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan on Monday. Ahead of the launch, president Michael Balderstone sends a message to the area’s sitting MP.
We know Kevin Hogan is comfortable with cannabis, having grown up in the area and knowing people who use it, but how come he never speaks out supporting us?
Because his mouth is taped shut by the National Party and enough is enough.
As the Federal representative for Nimbin — possibly the electorate with the highest cannabis consumption in Australia — it is just too ridiculous.
Our jails are crowded and our courts are full. The arrest rates for cannabis are higher than ever, even though legal prescriptions are soaring and thousands of locals now have legal weed.
We face two major problems. Users are not allowed to drive and their legal weed is very expensive. Not to mention it is largely grown indoors and/or overseas.
Why does he not support us growing our own medicine? And how can he stand by and watch hundreds of us busted for driving and losing our licences for a miniscule amount of cannabis in our saliva, possibly from using it days before? Absolutely nothing to do with impaired driving.
The evidence from overseas jurisdictions which have had legal cannabis for decades is that legalising cannabis has only positive consequences. Many American states have seen suicide, domestic violence and car accident statistics fall significantly since doing so.
The economic benefits are obvious, but the social implications are even more important, especially for our young people.
Hogan knows cannabis is the easy bust, being so bulky and smelly, and he must know young people choose to use powders and pills instead to avoid getting caught.
Did he notice in Canberra that the latest wastewater drug monitoring report by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission showed locals consumed cannabis in record amounts last year, but used fewer more harmful drugs?
Has the sky fallen in at all in the ACT, where people can grow two pot plants each now?
