DEAR News Of The Area,

THE NSW Premier, Chris Minns, stated last week that he has no plans to decriminalise cannabis, despite legal organisations, researchers and peak industry groups telling a parliamentary inquiry doing so for personal use would save money and reduce disproportionate punishments.

I can understand that many people do not want more drugs to be available to young people but that is to overlook the fact that cannabis, and many other more harmful drugs, are already available and in the control of, for want of a better word, outlaws.

The drug that has the most severe societal impact, and causes the most harm, is alcohol but there is no call to make it illegal for two main reasons.

Firstly, such a ban would be impractical to enforce as humans have been consuming fermented drinks for thousands of years.

Secondly, as we know from the prohibition years in the USA, it then falls to the criminal class to produce and distribute an unregulated and often dangerous product at great profit to themselves.

So, I propose that cannabis should be not just decriminalised, but legalised and, importantly, regulated to ensure a safe and reliable product is available to people without having to interact with criminals.

Further, I would like to see the regulation include strict measures to ensure that the cannabis drug industry, as opposed to a cannabis fibre industry, does not become a big business but instead is limited to small cottage industry concerns.

This could be done, perhaps, by restricting the number of employees per company to, say, five, and applying a taxation rate of 100 percent for profits over $200,000pa.

We know that the mid-north coast has an ideal climate to grow cannabis and already has a number of people who are skilled at growing it.

Providing a legal pathway for people to earn a modest living doing what is being done anyway is an effective way to reduce crime and reduce the unnecessary criminalisation of (mostly) young people.

Legalisation, and regulation, of recreational drugs also provides a way to educate people with health advice.

Smoking anything is extremely harmful to one’s lungs and is best avoided.

Alcohol is a neurotoxin and causes cancer.

And adults should make informed decisions about drug use without the advertising industry encouraging the use of harmful products.

Regards,
Peter SOBEY,
Valla.