US President Joe Biden has made a decisive move towards removing cannabis use from the criminal justice system. Australia needs to take heed. | OPINION by Greg Barns SC
on their record – and to order a review of whether cannabis should be classified with dangerous drugs such as heroin – is perhaps the most significant blow to the 50-year-old failed war on drugs initiated by the United States and slavishly followed by nations such as Australia.
Biden’s move is a wake-up call to Australian state and territory governments – except for the ACT which has already decriminalised possession of cannabis – to end the pain and discrimination that goes with treating drug use as a matter for the criminal justice system. While Biden’s pardon is confined to federal offences, he has called on all state governors to follow suit.
Biden has identified that cannabis possession and use convictions are palpably unjust and serve no useful sentencing purpose. Australians are the victims of this same injustice. Every day in our courts, people are convicted of having been found with cannabis by police, or because they were selling to a handful of friends. They must then disclose that conviction or record if they want to travel overseas, or if, for example, they are seeking admission as a lawyer or as a health professional.
Oregon has gone a step further and decriminalised the possession and use of many drugs. Across the border in Canada, cannabis is a legal product and is likely to be so shortly in Mexico.It is also important to note that cannabis laws in Australia have no deterrent impact. I have never met a judicial officer who believes that criminalising cannabis use has had any impact on reducing demand and supply. The use of cannabis is widespread.
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