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Study Finds Australians Support Cannabis Use Over Smoking Tobacco
A new study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports on perceptions and attitudes toward drug usage in the Land Down Under.
We’re all well aware that attitudes around cannabis are shifting around the world. Now, a new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare study analyzing 2019 data from Australia’s 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) sheds new light on just how much progress the Land Down Under has made surrounding cannabis perception, as well as beliefs around other substances.
The NDSHS focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of people across Australia on a variety of drug-related issues. In addition to gauging public perception on a variety of substances, it asks people about the measures the country takes to reduce drug use and drug-related harm, including government laws, taxes, and government funding of rehabilitation and withdrawal management treatment programs.
The 2019 data asked around 20,000 people aged 14 and up about their attitudes toward drugs, finding that for the first time, 20% of respondents supported regular cannabis use, more than the 15% who support tobacco use.
Piggy-backing off this belief, as cannabis use becomes more widely acceptable, according to the study, more Australians were in favor of greater penalties against tobacco use. Another finding notes that 72% of people in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) supported restricting the use of electronic cigarettes in public places, compared with 61% in the Northern Territory (NT).
As a whole, 85% of respondents supported stricter enforcement of laws against supplying minors with tobacco and stricter penalties for the sale or supply of tobacco to minors. Though, respondents were largely opposed to increasing tobacco taxes to discourage smoking or increase tobacco taxes to pay for health education, with 18% and 17% showing support for these policies, respectively.
Conversely, community support for the legalization of cannabis has increased from 25% in 2010 to 41% in 2019. This was also the first time that more people supported legalization of cannabis in Australia than opposed it (41% compared to 37%).
In comparison to the 2010 numbers, Australians have also eased their stances on punishing folks who possess cannabis. In 2010, 34% of those surveyed said that possession of cannabis should be a criminal offense, compared to 22% in 2019. When asked if penalties should be increased for supply of cannabis, 60% of respondents in 2010 said yes, while 44% answered the same in 2019. When asked if they approve of regular cannabis use by an adult, the number jumped from 8% approval in 2010 to 20% in 2019.
Though, nearly four in five (78%) of respondents said they still wouldn’t use cannabis, even if it was legal. The proportion of people who said they would try it if it were legal has increased, from 5.3% in 2010 to 9.5% in 2019. Additionally, 11% of respondents in the ACT would try cannabis if it were legal, compared to 7.5% in Tasmania.
The study also explores issues around alcohol use and other illicit drugs.
Australians most supported more severe legal penalties for drunk driving and stricter enforcement of the law against supplying minors with alcohol, boasting 84% and 79% of approving respondents, respectively. Respondents most opposed increasing the price of alcohol, with 47% saying the price should go up, and reducing trading hours for pubs and clubs, with 40% showing support.
Though, 45% of people approved of regular alcohol use by adults in 2019, an approval level higher than any other drug. It was also the only drug for which the level of approval was higher than disapproval.
The support of legalization of other drugs increased slightly since 2010, with support for cocaine legalization increasing from 6.3% in 2010 to 8% in 2019 and support for legalization of ecstasy increasing from 6.8% to 9.5% over the nine-year period. Support for the legalization of heroin (5.6%) and meth/amphetatmines (4.6%) has remained roughly the same.
Nearly three in five Australians (57%) supported allowing people to test pills and drugs at designated sites, though support varied widely based on region. People most commonly supported referral to treatment or education programs as the best action for people in possession of small quantities of selected drugs.
Cannabis was the only exception, as more than half (54%) of exponents supported “a caution/warning or no action,” with 24% supporting referral to treatment or education programs.
In addition to these myriad findings, the NDSHS also shared an interactive data map to break down responses on alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other drugs based on region.
Looking ahead, the study notes, “The 2022 survey is currently in the field and will be completed in early December 2022. Households are randomly selected to complete the survey and have their say.”
A lot has changed in nine years, and with the global cannabis industry showing few signs of slowing down, attitudes around cannabis will continue to shift, both in Australia and around the world. Bring it on.
Source: https://hightimes.com/study/study-finds-australians-support-cannabis-use-over-smoking-tobacco/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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