Recreational cannabis in Australia is essentially illegal. There are many reasons why it should be legalised and a recent report has revealed the financial benefits to the government coffers if it was legalised.
If the recreational use of cannabis was legalised in Australia, the market would be worth more an estimated $5 billion annually.
Cannabis is the most widely used drug in the country, with 12 per cent of people reporting having used it in the past year according to national statistics.
At the moment, the black market is worth at least $4.5 billion a year — all of which goes into the pockets of criminals and organised gangs.
There has been a growing movement calling for recreational cannabis use to be decriminalised, on the back of several American states and Canada.
After successful lobbying, medicinal marijuana has become legal for certain sufferers of chronic illness and disease.
“As of September 2018, there were just over 1000 medical cannabis patients registered inAustralia, which is a significantly lower patient participation rate than commonly seen in other legal medical cannabis markets.”
The amusing thing is, although the cost of medicinal cannabis has dropped by 50 per cent in the past year, approved Australian patients still pay almost a quarter above what illegal marijuana costs.
This type of research is promising for Australia and I would be very pleased to see the country take steps towards full legalisation.
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