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LEGALISE CANNABIS WESTERN AUSTRALIA PARTY
LEGALISE CANNABIS WESTERN AUSTRALIA PARTY
Legalise Cannabis are still trying to register in WA in time for the election, so at present a lot of their website is currently devoted to the travails of lining up enough members for registration. Their methods seems more rigorous than some of the not-quite-microparties that I follow who are desperately attempting to register and failing miserably.
Legalise Cannabis are upfront that what they’re aiming for is a seat in the LC so that they can have some input and a voice in parliament. It’s nice to see a reasonable aim – this will be an easier task for them than the QLD contest was, because due to QLDs unicameral system, the most they can hope for there is to get some attention at election time, rather than any parliamentary seats, since the Greens will mop up any third party vote tendencies in a lefty seat.
They have presented an analogy for how they think cannabis should be treated! Please enjoy:
The Grape Theory:
Treat Cannabis like grapes,
You can grow as many grapes as you want, no licence.
You can make as many of those grapes as you want into wine, no licence.
You can share that wine with your friends and family, no licence.
HOWEVER the moment you want to sell some of that wine you require a licence, and to show quality control and safety for human consumption, and you pay the appropriate fees.
And honestly, if you’re comparing the differences between how cannabis is regulated and how alcohol is regulated, given the risk profiles of each, I can see why you’d argue this.
Legalise Cannabis is also upfront about the fact that they have a single policy: legalisation via state government. I’m not sure I can deal with this continued outbreak of honesty – it’s so refreshing after spending so much time hunting out dogwhistles in far right parties.
For a single policy, though, they are thorough! They’ve outlined the steps they’d like to see taken, starting with a moratorium on arrests, followed by legalisation, an authority to regulate production and use, dispensaries, the right to grow it at home, review of drug driving laws, and historic criminal records being expunged.
They also have ideas about the development of the hemp industry (as is always the case) and suggestions on a taxation system for the drug, in an acknowledgement that the government will probably want to tax to regulate.
Honestly, this is all pretty reasonable. They are open about the fact that they understand it will need to be regulated like other medications/drugs, but they just think its classification right now is unreasonable compared to legal drugs that have similar or worse health outcomes. They want things to be safer for everyone and for it to no longer be something that drives criminal convictions.
There is the full suite of health claims for what cannabis can do for you, and I do see an argument that the increase in auto-immune disease, cancer and dementia might be linked to the decrease in cannabis use in the population over the past century or so (I more suspect the extended lifespan and far fewer childhood deaths, myself, but it wouldn’t be a pro-cannabis party without a FEW claims like this) but honestly they are pretty straightforward and they’re mostly not telling me it will fix ALL the world’s ills.
I think they’ve taken some tips from the successful North American and European campaigns and found ways to make this argument less “but I want it” than it was even 10 years ago.
Being up front: I personally don’t have any issues with minor personal use of cannabis. I haven’t tried it myself, but I also was a reasonably serious athlete well into my late twenties AND also have shit lungs, so the appeal wasn’t there. I hear from people who have serious chronic pain (and I deal with a lot of them for work) that they find it useful and less concerning than opioids. Decriminalisation and legalisation would absolutely help this population get better access and a more consistent drug product.
Their social media looks exactly like you’d expect the social media of a weed party to look like. They are earnest but also have a lot of posts about people having issues accessing medical marijuana, plus memes about why it’s banned. They are anti synthetic cannabinoids, which is an issue I do not have the care to look in to, but apparently distressing to the people who just want to grow the weed and the hemp.
Finally, a moment of pure pettiness: I wish parties wouldn't register party names in allcaps. It just looks so messy. Stop shouting at me. It's particularly irritating here, as I am certain whoever set up the party is young enough to understand exactly what they're doing by naming the party that way.
Any Predictions?
Yes, we do! Well, we did for HEMP, and I’m going to use them here anyway.
HEMP are concerned with... god do I actually have to spell it out? HEMP think marijuana can’t hurt if you’ve got an infection, don’t judge us for smoking, man.
Every member of the HEMP Party this afternoon: sharing content on Facebook that claims weed cures COVID-19.
While I can see all sorts of health claims, mostly about chronic pain, I have not yet seen one about COVID. I think they’re so focused on getting the party registered that they don’t have time to make jokes like this 12 months into a pandemic.
Is this party trying to kill me?
No. Legalise Cannabis just want legal cannabis, and as they are very fond of saying, “nobody has ever died from taking marijuana”.
Is this party trying to harm me?
No. I mean I don’t want to be close to anyone smoking, as my lungs hate it, but I also don’t want to be near people smoking cigarettes, dusty days, bushfire smoke clouds, pollen, Glen20 or other things that irritate my lungs. These people have no ill will towards me.
Conclusion:
I have to say, this appears to be a pro-cannabis party having an outbreak of good sense, by following the advice they’ve been given and targeting the level of government that can actually make the reforms they want. Their goals are small and well articulated, and there’s a lot less nonsense than you generally see with claims of how cannabis can cure all the world’s ills.
They are still a microparty however, and have given no indication of how they would plan to vote on the 99.99% of parliamentary issues that do not revolve around legalising cannabis, so you’re on your own there about what they would actually be doing in parliament if they got a seat.
If you think that decriminalisation, at minimum, is something that is helpful, I’d suggest they fall in the harmless category and could go reasonably high on your ballot. I’d certainly prefer to see someone in the LC holding the balance of power who has a broader articulated set of policies, but realistically they are just here to make noise on the ballot and advocate for their single issue.
https://lcwaparty.org.au
I just checked – this is not HEMP, but a separate party. I did manage to track down their website via HEMP though – very kind of them to let the party advertise. It apparently formed in September 2020, so they are very new indeed, but the QLD branch already contested the QLD election
Legalise Cannabis are still trying to register in WA in time for the election, so at present a lot of their website is currently devoted to the travails of lining up enough members for registration. Their methods seems more rigorous than some of the not-quite-microparties that I follow who are desperately attempting to register and failing miserably.
Legalise Cannabis are upfront that what they’re aiming for is a seat in the LC so that they can have some input and a voice in parliament. It’s nice to see a reasonable aim – this will be an easier task for them than the QLD contest was, because due to QLDs unicameral system, the most they can hope for there is to get some attention at election time, rather than any parliamentary seats, since the Greens will mop up any third party vote tendencies in a lefty seat.
They have presented an analogy for how they think cannabis should be treated! Please enjoy:
The Grape Theory:
Treat Cannabis like grapes,
You can grow as many grapes as you want, no licence.
You can make as many of those grapes as you want into wine, no licence.
You can share that wine with your friends and family, no licence.
HOWEVER the moment you want to sell some of that wine you require a licence, and to show quality control and safety for human consumption, and you pay the appropriate fees.
And honestly, if you’re comparing the differences between how cannabis is regulated and how alcohol is regulated, given the risk profiles of each, I can see why you’d argue this.
Legalise Cannabis is also upfront about the fact that they have a single policy: legalisation via state government. I’m not sure I can deal with this continued outbreak of honesty – it’s so refreshing after spending so much time hunting out dogwhistles in far right parties.
For a single policy, though, they are thorough! They’ve outlined the steps they’d like to see taken, starting with a moratorium on arrests, followed by legalisation, an authority to regulate production and use, dispensaries, the right to grow it at home, review of drug driving laws, and historic criminal records being expunged.
They also have ideas about the development of the hemp industry (as is always the case) and suggestions on a taxation system for the drug, in an acknowledgement that the government will probably want to tax to regulate.
Honestly, this is all pretty reasonable. They are open about the fact that they understand it will need to be regulated like other medications/drugs, but they just think its classification right now is unreasonable compared to legal drugs that have similar or worse health outcomes. They want things to be safer for everyone and for it to no longer be something that drives criminal convictions.
There is the full suite of health claims for what cannabis can do for you, and I do see an argument that the increase in auto-immune disease, cancer and dementia might be linked to the decrease in cannabis use in the population over the past century or so (I more suspect the extended lifespan and far fewer childhood deaths, myself, but it wouldn’t be a pro-cannabis party without a FEW claims like this) but honestly they are pretty straightforward and they’re mostly not telling me it will fix ALL the world’s ills.
I think they’ve taken some tips from the successful North American and European campaigns and found ways to make this argument less “but I want it” than it was even 10 years ago.
Being up front: I personally don’t have any issues with minor personal use of cannabis. I haven’t tried it myself, but I also was a reasonably serious athlete well into my late twenties AND also have shit lungs, so the appeal wasn’t there. I hear from people who have serious chronic pain (and I deal with a lot of them for work) that they find it useful and less concerning than opioids. Decriminalisation and legalisation would absolutely help this population get better access and a more consistent drug product.
Their social media looks exactly like you’d expect the social media of a weed party to look like. They are earnest but also have a lot of posts about people having issues accessing medical marijuana, plus memes about why it’s banned. They are anti synthetic cannabinoids, which is an issue I do not have the care to look in to, but apparently distressing to the people who just want to grow the weed and the hemp.
Finally, a moment of pure pettiness: I wish parties wouldn't register party names in allcaps. It just looks so messy. Stop shouting at me. It's particularly irritating here, as I am certain whoever set up the party is young enough to understand exactly what they're doing by naming the party that way.
Any Predictions?
Yes, we do! Well, we did for HEMP, and I’m going to use them here anyway.
HEMP are concerned with... god do I actually have to spell it out? HEMP think marijuana can’t hurt if you’ve got an infection, don’t judge us for smoking, man.
Every member of the HEMP Party this afternoon: sharing content on Facebook that claims weed cures COVID-19.
While I can see all sorts of health claims, mostly about chronic pain, I have not yet seen one about COVID. I think they’re so focused on getting the party registered that they don’t have time to make jokes like this 12 months into a pandemic.
Is this party trying to kill me?
No. Legalise Cannabis just want legal cannabis, and as they are very fond of saying, “nobody has ever died from taking marijuana”.
Is this party trying to harm me?
No. I mean I don’t want to be close to anyone smoking, as my lungs hate it, but I also don’t want to be near people smoking cigarettes, dusty days, bushfire smoke clouds, pollen, Glen20 or other things that irritate my lungs. These people have no ill will towards me.
Conclusion:
I have to say, this appears to be a pro-cannabis party having an outbreak of good sense, by following the advice they’ve been given and targeting the level of government that can actually make the reforms they want. Their goals are small and well articulated, and there’s a lot less nonsense than you generally see with claims of how cannabis can cure all the world’s ills.
They are still a microparty however, and have given no indication of how they would plan to vote on the 99.99% of parliamentary issues that do not revolve around legalising cannabis, so you’re on your own there about what they would actually be doing in parliament if they got a seat.
If you think that decriminalisation, at minimum, is something that is helpful, I’d suggest they fall in the harmless category and could go reasonably high on your ballot. I’d certainly prefer to see someone in the LC holding the balance of power who has a broader articulated set of policies, but realistically they are just here to make noise on the ballot and advocate for their single issue.
no subject
Their social media is more typical, but that's honestly not a surprise. They are definitely trying to put their best foot forward.