Page 4250 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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caught with a small amount of cannabis, then that is a matter for them and for the federal Attorney-General …” the spokesman said.
He went on:
If more people are going to be incarcerated under these laws, then the conservative Liberals better have a plan for how they are going to build more prisons.
That is what the ACT government spokesperson said in response to the fact that the Attorney-General at the federal level said that these laws do not do what you think they do. The ACT government spokesman said, “Build more jails.” That is on the record from the ACT government spokesperson. What an extraordinarily irresponsible response!
The ABC reported on this matter and provided an article called “One unlucky smoker will determine whether cannabis really is legal in Canberra”. It says:
Criminal behaviour is generally seen as fairly black and white: an act is either legal or illegal.
But, when it comes to possessing cannabis, the situation in the ACT will be very hazy from early next year.
And it may take having a very unlucky Canberran arrested, charged and put before the court to clear the … air …
The ACT Law society’s Michael Kukulies-Smith said the current situation left both cannabis users and police officers in an untenable position.
Professor Desmond Manderson, from the Australian National University’s law college, suggested this would be the most likely outcome.
“There will have to be a court case to work out the meaning of the provisions in the Commonwealth Crimes Act that recognise the freedom of state and territory governments to make their own drug laws,” he said.
Members, this botched bill has created a legal minefield where there is grave risk, a real risk—Mr Rattenbury is laughing; he thinks it is funny—that they are doing something that is completely legal but they find themselves prosecuted and found guilty of a federal crime. Regardless of whether you believe cannabis should be legal or not, as legislators I would hope that it is our duty, and I believe that it is our duty,
to enact legislation that does not put our citizens at risk. And that is what this legislation does.
As late as yesterday Mr Ramsay would not rule out that someone could be prosecuted, convicted and possibly jailed for possession of small amounts of cannabis, which is being deemed legal by this Assembly. The reason he did not rule it out is that he cannot. As Mr Ramsey said in his speech during debate on the bill:
This does not entirely remove the risk of people being arrested under commonwealth law, and we are being upfront with the community about that.
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