GREEN CANNABIS CALL SHOULD BE A CONCERN

THIS week when the Greens announced they support legalising cannabis for adult recreational use, the debate veered quickly into the terrain of smashing drug cartels.

The war on drugs is actually “a war on people”, said Senator Richard Di Natale in a number of pithy soundbites as he attempted to convince us this was a good idea.

With about seven million Aussies apparently getting stoned on a regular basis, the Greens say we need to “get real” about cannabis.

Call me old fashioned, but how about we get real about supporting parents who are trying to educate their kids that no recreational drug can be taken “safely”?

According to the Greens, we need to “smash that business model”, confiscate the industry from criminal syndicates and hand it over to a “tightly regulated health network”, he says.

Then we can all breathe a sigh of relief and get back to watching Netflix while our kids “safely” fry their brains. Make no mistake, adult pushers no longer getting busted will mean easy access for them and easy access for our kids.

But nowhere in the Greens’ grandstanding or within the similar sermons of that ilk, such as pro-pot crusader Dr Alex Wodak, do we hear the P word – parents.

You know, those unfashionable voters like me and you who don’t want their kids to take drugs.

We’re the invisible and patronised backbone of the ’burbs, the mums and dads who will do anything to drill into their kids that marijuana, however legalised, and pills like ecstasy, are dangerous.

The Greens’ plan is for the government to license people to grow cannabis under strict conditions with “monitoring” and “compliance” in an environment brimming with cosy reassurance.

This, we’re told, will guarantee people get access to a low-risk substance “of a known quantity” plus advice from revered drug experts, before they light up.

The tax revenue from sales would then be poured into psychological services but of course there’s no clue as to how much would be spent.

And how ironic that these mystical coffers would be filled, given marijuana’s devastating effect on mental health is well documented.

Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon sums it up, saying: “Marijuana’s association with mental illness and psychosis, the extent to which it might cause psychosis or the chance that it increases the number of psychotic episodes in people with mental illness, is enough of a concern for us.”

Meanwhile the procannabis lobby says we parents should give up and get real because your kids will

take drugs anyhow so for heaven sake’s stop fussing and get with the program.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt sensibly acknowledged that this week’s crackpot scheme was terrifying for parents: “The ridiculous Greens argument that we should give unrestricted access to drugs that are prohibited applies equally to ice and heroin, and should strike fear into the heart of every parent.”

The whole point of parenting is to never give up and to not go with the tide. The unintended consequence of legalising cannabis is that cannabis must be okay, safe even. All care and no responsibility is the order of the day with this trendy but destructive mindset.