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Record support for Legalise Cannabis Australia as candidate races Pauline Hanson for final senate seat Marina Trajkovich 9News Wednesday 25 May 2022 The party's leader, Bernie Bradley, is now in neck and neck competition with Pauline Hanson of One Nation for the final seat in the Senate. In Queensland, one in 17 voters put Legalise Cannabis Australia as their first preference. Bradley, a lawyer in Noosa in the state's Sunshine Coast region, said the movement is gaining steam nationwide. "This is no longer a fringe issue," he said. Bradley added while he is not a user of the drug, he sees the damaging effects criminalisation of cannabis has on Australians and the benefits of the drug medically. Cannabis was first criminalised in Queensland during the 1930s, with the drug becoming legal in the state for medicinal use in 2016. In 2020, 23,000 cannabis-related arrests were made in Queensland, more than double the arrests made for carrying the drug in Victoria. "There was a fellow here only yesterday who pleaded guilty to possessing non-medicinal cannabis because as his lawyer explained to the court he couldn't afford the prescribed stuff," Bradley said. Support for medicinal marijuana has grown in Queensland, with half of all medicinal cannabis prescriptions in the country issued in the Sunshine State. Vanessa Ward, a pharmacist at Releaf in Noosa, said stigmas attached to the drug appear to be fading. "Particularly the older Australians are becoming aware of the use and the effectiveness," she said. "Medicinal cannabis doesn't have the side effects and actually helps treat those conditions better than some of the prescription medications." The growing popularity of the Legalise Cannabis Australia Party suggests we could be one step closer to decriminalisation. "I suppose we should look at other jurisdictions around the world and see how they've gone," one Queenslander said. "It could be taxed, it could be regulated," another said. Bradley believes decriminalisation would be a positive step forward Australia-wide. "In those jurisdictions where it has been decriminalised, the sky in fact has not fallen in," he said. https://www.9news.com.au/national/record-support-for-legalise-cannabis-australia-as-candidate-races-pauline-hanson-for-final-senate-seat/43b81728-4128-4238-ac2a-8c60e94c7e79
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