qualia, that link is absolute bullshit... had to happen i guess.
"
But Mr Johnson said today that when Mr Gallop was premier he presided over a surge in drug use after his government decriminalised the smoking of small amounts of marijuana.
"We became known as the cannabis capital of Australia and we saw cannabis use grow extensively," Mr Johnson said.
"Drugs are not good for anybody, and if you start decriminalising it what you see is an increase in use, you see people going from cannabis to harder drugs. You get people with psychotic problems."
Mr Johnson said the Barnett government was not going to stand by and let that happen in WA."
bullshit...
i'm trying to find WA cannabis stats during the gallop period but finding it difficult
check this one chnt.
http://www.perthnow....u-1226317934748CANNABIS use in Western Australia fell markedly after it was decriminalised - contrary to comments by Police Minister Rob Johnson that it had grown "extensively". Mr Johnson told reporters today that when former WA Labor premier Geoff Gallop decriminalised the smoking, possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana in 2004, he presided over a surge in drug use.
"We became known as the cannabis capital of Australia and we saw cannabis use grow extensively," Mr Johnson said.
"If you start decriminalising it, what you see is an increase in use."
Mr Johnson was responding to a think tank of prominent Australians that said the so-called war on drugs had been lost, and tougher laws were doing more harm than good.
However, statistics from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey show cannabis use among West Australians fell from 13.7 per cent in 2004 to 10.8 per cent in 2007.
The figure rose to 13.4 per cent in 2010, after the Liberal-National government came to power in 2008, but was still below the 2004 figure.
Mr Johnson recriminalised possession of 10g or more and cultivation of cannabis last year, introducing some of the nation's toughest penalties.
National Drug Research Institute deputy director Simon Lenton said there was "no evidence" to back Mr Johnson's comments.
"The real story here is that cannabis use has been declining across the country and in WA - there's no evidence that it increased at all among the general population or amongst surveys of schoolkids," he said.
Mr Lenton said the rise in cannabis usage figures between 2007 and 2010 could be explained by a statistical anomaly, after the telephone component of the survey was removed, increasing the number of positive responses.
"People are less likely to admit to drug use on the phone than they are in a sealed questionnaire," he said.
"They changed the methodology, so if you look across the board - across the country - there's been an increase."
Mr Lenton said only about three per cent of cannabis users were "busted each year by police", meaning education was a better deterrent than harsher penalties.
He said laws newly introduced in WA under which parents could get a mandatory sentence of 12 months' jail for growing just one marijuana plant if it was proved to harm a child were "detrimental".
"There is clearly indication that applying a criminal penalty to a minor cannabis offence doesn't reduce rates of use in the general community, or even people who are apprehended," he said.
"People going to jail for a minor cannabis offence is clearly not in the interests of them or their children."
Edited by Bush Turkey, 03 April 2012 - 08:45 PM.
My name is Luca........... I live on the second floor
