CANNABIS — LEGALISATION
1058. Hon Dr BRIAN WALKER to the Leader of the House
representing the Premier:
I
refer the Premier to media coverage of the German government's decision
to legalise the sale of cannabis for personal use, and particularly to
Oliver Moody's article in The Australian of 26 November
2021 entitled ''Germany must dare to be more liberal: new chancellor''.
(1) Does the McGowan government monitor international
trends in cannabis legalisation, or other drug reforms for that matter,
and do moves in our allied and aligned Western democracies in any way feed into
its thinking on legal reforms here in Western Australia?
(2) If no to (1),
how many more jurisdictions will have to legalise personal use of cannabis
before the government acknowledges that it has fallen behind in terms of what
is a clear and growing progressive trend supported by the majority of Western Australians?
(3) Acknowledging that ''liberal'' can
be a loaded term here in Australia, does the McGowan government have any
plans to be at least more socially aware when it comes to drug reform in
general, and cannabis reform in particular, or will it remain turgidly
conservative?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1)–(3) The
state government has no plans to amend existing cannabis laws in Western Australia.