Australia’s Senate Votes Down Marijuana Legalization Bill

Australia’s Senate has rejected a proposal by the Greens party that would have legalized marijuana nationwide. Lawmakers in the chamber voted 24–13 to block the legislation on Wednesday, with opposition led by the governing Labor party and opposition coalition Liberal and National parties.

The plan’s backer, Sen. David Shoebridge, said the vote nevertheless marked progress in the country’s shift away from the war on drugs. A Greens press release noted that it’s the first time Australia’s federal parliament voted on a nationwide cannabis legalization bill.

“We took a big step today from treating cannabis as part of the failing ‘war on drugs’ and instead putting forward a model that is safer, reduces harms and delivers for the millions of Australians who just want us to legalize it!” Shoebridge said in a statement, adding: “The Labor and Coalition parties joined together to try and hold Australia back in the 1950’s by blocking this desperately needed reform.”

In a post on social media, Shoebridge vowed that despite vote’s outcome, “we’re not giving up on legalising cannabis.”

The proposal would have legalized, regulated and taxed cannabis at the national level, establishing the Cannabis Australia National Agency, or CANA, to license and oversee the commercial industry and maintain a national register of marijuana strains.

Home cultivation for personal use, as well as home processing of edibles, would have been explicitly allowed under the bill.

It would have also authorized the creation of cannabis cafes, where adults could use marijuana in a social setting.

Liberals and Labor just teamed up to vote against legalising cannabis in the Senate.

This is yet another example of the major parties working together to refuse any sort of progress.

But we promise you this: we’re not giving up on legalising cannabis.

— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) November 27, 2024

Outreach to the public while crafting the bill, the Greens said in a report published before the vote, found “strong agreement that cannabis growing and sales should not be overly corporatized and agreement that big alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical industries should not control the industry.”

“The support for this bill across the community is enormous and it’s why we know cannabis legalisation in this country is inevitable,” Shoebridge said on Wednesday.

The ongoing criminalization of cannabis in Australia, he argued, has failed to curb use in the country.

“Government data shows 8.8 million of adult Australians have consumed cannabis. The Labor and Liberal parties are happy to call all of these people criminals. That’s a bloody disgrace,” Shoebridge said. “They keep pretending the war on drugs is working and that we all live in a world where drug use almost never happens.”

Here is the final vote on Legalising Cannabis 13/24. Greens, Senator Tyrell and Senator Thorpe in favour. Labor and the Coalition once again teaming up to vote down law reform the community wants. pic.twitter.com/q4JyUE4sow

— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) November 26, 2024

During Senate floor debate on Wednesday, Shoebridge said the proposal would make for safer cannabis products and reduce harms associated with the drug trade.

But Sen. Don Farrell (Labor), deputy leader of the government in the Senate, called the plan “a stunt by Sen. Shoebridge and the Greens,” asserting it had “a flimsy legal basis.”

“The Senate committee inquiry into this bill could not determine with any confidence that the bill was constitutional,” Farrell said. “Laws dealing with recreational possession and use of cannabis are matters for the states and territories. Sen. Shoebridge’s bill cannot change that basic fact.”

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The legal change would generate about $28.2 billion in government tax revenue over the next 10 years if products were to be taxed at 15 percent, according to a 73-page legislative report on the bill. Revenue would rise to roughly $36.8 billion if the tax rate were set at 25 percent.

Currently the Greens control 11 of 76 seats in the Australian Senate.

Cannabis remains illegal federally in Australia outside of the country’s highly restrictive medical marijuana program, though some reforms have been adopted at the local level.

In the Australian Capital Territory, for example—which includes the national capital of Canberra and surrounding areas—a policy took effect in October of last year decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. That reform built on an existing marijuana decriminalization policy that took effect in 2020.

In terms of other substances at the national level, the Australian government last year rescheduled the psychedelics psilocybin and MDMA to provide access to people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treat-resistant depression.

Placing the substances in Schedule 8 for therapeutic use under the country’s drug code allows psychiatrists who meet the required standards to prescribe the psychedelics. The drugs remain in the stricter Schedule 9 for unauthorized use.

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

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