FruityBud
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Western Australia has become the "cannabis capital of Australia" thanks to weak laws put in place by the previous Labor government, the state's police minister says.
Rob Johnson today responded to results from the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey that showed WA's rate of cannabis use was 13.4 per cent, 30 per cent higher than the national average.
The figures released today come the week before tough new penalties for cannabis possession come into effect in WA on August 1.
Mr Johnson said the new penalties aimed to curb the level of cannabis smoking in WA and reduce the harmful impact of the drug, which had much higher toxicity than previously recorded.
"We have virtually become the cannabis capital of Australia and the reason for that is because of the weak laws that Labor put in place when they came into power in 2001.
"They even realised that the weakness was leading to an increase in cannabis use, which is the gateway to other drugs," Mr Johnson said.
He said that following a report in 2007, the Labor government committed to toughening up the laws but never got round to it.
Mr Johnson said the new Liberal-National government laws toughened penalties but millions of dollars would also be spent to fund compulsory one-on-one counselling sessions for those caught with less than 10 grams.
He said under Labor's "weak laws", 95 per cent of people caught with less than 30g of cannabis elected to pay small "speeding ticket" fines, but a third of them never paid.
Under the new laws, a person caught with more than 10 grams of cannabis will face a penalty of $2000 or two years in jail, or both.
A person found in possession of more than 100g of cannabis would be deemed to have that quantity for supply or sale and would face a penalty of $20,000 or two years in jail.
Under the new law, a person found in possession of 10g or less of cannabis will receive a Cannabis Intervention Requirement notice to attend a mandatory counselling session.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/44dwuku
Rob Johnson today responded to results from the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey that showed WA's rate of cannabis use was 13.4 per cent, 30 per cent higher than the national average.
The figures released today come the week before tough new penalties for cannabis possession come into effect in WA on August 1.
Mr Johnson said the new penalties aimed to curb the level of cannabis smoking in WA and reduce the harmful impact of the drug, which had much higher toxicity than previously recorded.
"We have virtually become the cannabis capital of Australia and the reason for that is because of the weak laws that Labor put in place when they came into power in 2001.
"They even realised that the weakness was leading to an increase in cannabis use, which is the gateway to other drugs," Mr Johnson said.
He said that following a report in 2007, the Labor government committed to toughening up the laws but never got round to it.
Mr Johnson said the new Liberal-National government laws toughened penalties but millions of dollars would also be spent to fund compulsory one-on-one counselling sessions for those caught with less than 10 grams.
He said under Labor's "weak laws", 95 per cent of people caught with less than 30g of cannabis elected to pay small "speeding ticket" fines, but a third of them never paid.
Under the new laws, a person caught with more than 10 grams of cannabis will face a penalty of $2000 or two years in jail, or both.
A person found in possession of more than 100g of cannabis would be deemed to have that quantity for supply or sale and would face a penalty of $20,000 or two years in jail.
Under the new law, a person found in possession of 10g or less of cannabis will receive a Cannabis Intervention Requirement notice to attend a mandatory counselling session.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/44dwuku
