CANNABIS PLAN FAILS TO ENTHUSE VOTERS

The majority of West Australians believe repealing the State's
cannabis laws will either have no effect or actually encourage the use
of amphetamines, according to the latest Westpoll.

The State Government wants to repeal Labor's drug laws, which allow
people caught with up to 30g of cannabis, two plants or a smoking
implement to be given an infringement notice rather than face a
criminal charge. The Liberals plan to reinstate the cautioning system
for possession only, lower the threshold to 10g and scrap the two
plants allowance.

Before the last election, Labor also promised amendments to the laws
which would have seen the two plants allowance abolished and the
possession threshold lowered to 15g.

The Westpoll found that about 30 per cent of people thought the
Barnett Government's plan would have no effect on the consumption of
amphetamines and 24 per cent believed it might actually encourage
amphetamine use.

Although the State Government promised to repeal the laws in its first
100 days, Police Minister Rob Johnson said he would introduce the
legislation "as soon as possible . . . in the spring session of
Parliament".

"The Government was elected on a platform of cracking down on drug use
in our community and that's what we are doing," he said.

Shadow mental health minister Roger Cook said the poll reflected the
belief that restricting one drug led people to move to another.

He said medical research was demonstrating that cannabis was a lot
more harmful than people had been led to believe in the past and that
created difficulties for policy makers.