Marijuana Control Analysis
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Marijuana Control Analysis
Introduction
Marijuana (Cannabis) is a grey, brown, or green mixture of shredded, dried seeds, stems, leaves, and flowers of the plant of hemp known as Cannabis sativa. It is used as psychoactive or minds alerting recreational drug for medical ailments and for spiritual and religious purposes. Hashish, Sinsemilla, and hash oil are considered to be marijuana's stronger form. According to many researches, marijuana is considered to be the most significant abused drug in Australia. Many states in Australia are also legalising marijuana for recreational or medical use. Moreover, according to federal law, marijuana possession is still not legal in Australia except in some research settings with the approval of the government. Australia has one of the highest prevalence rates of cannabis in the world, and the indigenous population of Australia has greater levels of use of cannabis. The use of recreational cannabis is also illegal in Australia, and the country has avoided a policy of punitive drug which focuses on the strategies of harm-minimisation. This report discusses the current approaches to control the use of cannabis and also the recommendations to improve these strategies and approaches to make Australian society free of marijuana.
Discussion
Current Approaches to Control Use of Marijuana
Laws concerning the manufacture, supply and possession of illicit drugs such as cannabis are the remit of Territories and States in Australia, but the Commonwealth has a significant legal role as some powers consequences over exports and imports and by the international treaty obligations virtue. Illicit drugs are defined differently in every jurisdiction as some consequences. The website of the Australian drug foundation has comprehensive links set to a huge range of specific illegal drugs such as cannabis which gives complete information of all its harmful effect. Moreover, the crime commission of Australia produces the Drug report on Cannabis annually. It contains informative data related to the use of cannabis in Australia and its effect. All these reports address the harms related to cannabis (Mason, Fleming, & Haggerty, 2016, p.199).
Trafficking and dealing in illegal drugs such as cannabis is considered to the critical criminal offence. Several laws are employed to sanction alleged cannabis traffickers in Australia, but the punishment related to this crime depends on the weight of the cannabis found from the criminal. The weight of the cannabis determines whether the criminal is charged with the possess offence such as diversion into bond, fine, and treatment or the offence of supply which is imprisonment up to twenty-one to twenty -five years or can be the imprisonment of life. Such type of law which is existed in the jurisdictions of Australia since the 1970s is known as deemed supply. In this, an individual is deemed to have supplied the cannabis which is based only on the weight and not on any other evidence (Evans-Whipp, et, al., 2015, p.995).
The effectiveness of These Approaches
Several agencies conduct daily cannabis survey related to its utilisation in Australia. Some are geared to illicit the consumption of cannabis while others. Many approaches have been developed which are useful to gain a perspective on the illicit cannabis use within relation for using and abusing of licit substances. The significance of such type of comparison is evident in drug-related harms that contain links to approaches which compare the social and economic cost of licit and illicit use of cannabis. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publishes and conducts the household survey of national drug strategy which explores the perceptions and opinions of Australians who are aging fourteen years or above on several issue related to cannabis that include marijuana use personal approval, the cannabis effect on the general mortality and community and the health risk perception from tobacco and alcohol consumption. Statistics on Drug use in Australia are also published by the AIHW which include data on cannabis use patterns with attitude and trends to use, health and drugs, international comparison, groups of special population, law and crime enforcement, use of polydrug, and moderation and avoidance of cannabis. The National Illicit System of Drug reporting is also conducted each year in every territory and states of Australia by participating institutions of research throughout the country. This survey is done with the coordination of NDARC (National Drug and Alcohol Research Center). All these surveys help the authorities to figure out the way for reducing the harmful effect of cannabis on society (Snijder, et, al., 2018, p.7).
The historical and legal analysis of Australian law and other approaches has shown that these laws are inconsistent, unnecessary, and unjust with the legal principles of standards. So, it is necessary to adopt some changes in the current laws and approaches for controlling the use of Cannabis in Australian society (Guttmannova, 2019, p.10).
Recommendations
Clear aims and principles of policies are necessary to develop the policy and to evaluate its effects for facilitating the improvements in future. Still, these have been often absent in cannabis drug policies of Australia. They should disseminate and develop consistent and clear information related to the potential benefits and risks which are associated with cannabis utilisation. Policies should be implemented and developed that strengthen the capacity of community and skills of the individual which promote behaviours related to sound health. Australian authorities should also implement and develop the regulations of federal which are concerned with the packaging, processing, harvesting, and growing of cannabis, and products containing cannabis for the sales of retail. They should also implement and develop the model of retail sales which expands the system in place for the regime of cannabis. Retail sales of any store should be restricted for the control of the government and not for the monopolies of profit. All products containing cannabis should be sold in childproof and resealable packaging. Cannabis should also be included in all smoke-free bylaws like policies of tobacco and alcohol consumption in the workplace or public spaces (Litt, et, al., 2016, p. 30).
Some other effective preventions which can help in eliminating the harmful effects of cannabis include establishing the tax rates of products containing cannabis which are based on the concentration of THC, limitation of advertising of cannabis product, and a common minimum age of cannabis consumption all across Australia. The authorities of Australia should also permit the alternative approaches for the consumption of the product in order to decrease the reliance on the smoke of inhaling cannabis. Strategies and plans should be initiated by the authorities for monitoring the statistics like daily use of self-reporting, potency and types of products consumed, consumption reason, socio-economic and gender status. Health surveillance of an individual should be strengthened for understanding its impact on society and also for evaluating the impact of the utilisation of cannabis. Moreover, some other statistics like an admittance of emergency room for the overdose of cannabis and injuries related cases of cannabis use should also be monitored. Authorities should make a proper plan for monitoring the disorders of its use and also for monitoring the impact of cannabis smoke and other cannabis product on health. Evidence-informed strategies are also necessary for reducing the impact of cannabis from Australian society. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop the tools for helping the doctors, physicians, and other social and health services professions in order to identify the persons at risk after developing the disorder of cannabis use. It also essential to adopt the treatment programs of substance for including cannabis. Preventing marijuana use means preventing the abuse of other drugs as well. Australian authorities should teach the parents that they should have a significant task of steering away from their children from marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes, and other prescription through which the young generations start with. They should also make a strategy for training children about the harmful effect of marijuana (Lipperman-Kilmer, 2016, p.190).
Such approaches at all government levels should be based on the efficient available information of what is likely to work, what works, what does not work. The government in Australia also designed a strategy for supporting, implementing, and developing research programs which include research of cross-jurisdictional that address every aspect of the use of cannabis with the priorities maintained with the Australian Institute of Health Research. Moreover, underpinning such initiatives is a need for a plan evaluation which gives the timely assessment of what isn't working and what works so that proper adjustment can be done. Furthermore, the government of CommonWealth should also call all states government and political parties for governing organisation for collaborating closely on the development of legislation related to cannabis, guidelines and regulations for minimising the variations of jurisdictional in all approaches. Once the legislation is implemented, it can be effective for youth criminalisation who give few cannabis quantities to other young people for the use of an individual. Care should also be taken for applying the proposed rules that have the concern of trafficking for reflecting the crime severity. Training sessions should be organised all over Australia to clarify the smoke of second-hand cannabis effects (Mather, et, al., 2015, p.20).
A large amount of taxes should be applied to cannabis for keeping the prices higher. Excise taxes are associated with the lower use of tobacco and alcohol by adolescents. Youths are generally sensitive to prices and can not afford the use of drugs after such a higher amount of taxes. Even though youth in Australia cannot legally buy marijuana and it is sold in the legal market which is illegal to resold to young children. Thus, increasing the taxes in the legal market can raise the resale values in black markets. The measures for preventing marijuana of black market from getting into the legal market also require supply chain strict monitoring. Marijuana's retail availability should also be strictly regulated. The Australian government should develop policies of license applying for all actors in the recreational supply chain of marijuana which also retailers. Despite the restriction of age-limit, several young people can obtain tobacco and alcohol from retailers. Such problems could be eliminated for cannabis by tighter enforcement of current laws which include more complex audits and severe penalties that can be successful in reducing the sale of illegal alcohol and tobacco to minors. Moreover, the government of Common Wealth of Australia should regulate positions of retail cannabis establishment for keeping them away from schools, playground, and prohibiting stores which should sell other healthy products to minors instead of selling marijuana (Martin & Bonomo, 2016, p. 372).
Australian legislation should be focused on eliminating the children likelihood of ingesting marijuana likelihood. Australian states with marijuana that is legal should regulate and take the strict actions against the labelling, packaging, and appearances of the products which are likely to be attractive and appealing to young ones, like baked good, and infused-candy. It is needed that manufacturers should use packaging of child-resistant such as sealed, opaque, and blister packs or bottles. Moreover, clear labelling for all edibles of marijuana-infused could reduce accidental ingestion. The packaging of Child-resistant is efficient in other contexts that include the decreasing rate of unintentional ingestion of drugs of oral prescription by children. Clear labelling of drugs can increase the ability of an individual for identifying the harmful products which help them to keep away from children. Such legislatures could also empower the Australian department of health for regulating marijuana as a potentially additive unsafe food by giving them authority for limiting its quantity in edibles (Lancaster, Seear, Treloar, 2015, p.39). Exposure of youth for the marketing of marijuana should also be minimised. Exposure of tobacco and alcohol advertising lowers risk perception of adolescents and rises perceived social initiation, desirability, and use of the substance. Australian should be comprehensive in the regulation of the marketing of marijuana. Commercial free speeches should be interpreted for allowing some restrictions of marketing by targeting the sources of media which are likely to be seen by youth such as television programs focused by youth, magazines famous with youth, and online sites of social media. As with alcohol, and online tobacco advertisement of marijuana should be restricted, but websites like Google voluntarily ban the advertising of marijuana. Branded clothing and other materials for promotion could eliminate the adverse effects of advertising of marijuana on young people. Regulating the candies infused with marijuana marketing can also help in limiting the utilisation in youth as it is believed that tobacco products of candy-flavour are very attractive to young ones (Gossop, 2016, p.54).
Conclusion
Adaptation of such approaches not only reduce but also eliminate the legalised marijuana health risks on young people. In addition to informing patients and parents about the risk of Australian marijuana, States should use legislators and regulators about the risky products of marijuana and access points. If states of Australia fail for containing marijuana diversion from legal to illegal markets than youth can be able to get cannabis from illegal sellers. So even with the strict regulations, it will not be easy for limiting marijuana availability to youth through the cultivation of home that is allowed in all authorities of Australia with legalised marijuana. Moreover, many states of Australia have limited ability for preventing homemade edibles of marijuana-infused from getting into the hands of children. Hence policymakers should take steps with true evidence for improving regulations that control sale and production of marijuana.
References
Evans-Whipp, T.J., Plenty, S.M., Catalano, R.F., Herrenkohl, T.I. and Toumbourou, J.W., 2015. Longitudinal effects of school drug policies on student marijuana use in Washington State and Victoria, Australia. American journal of public health, 105(5), pp.994-1000.
Gossop, M., 2016. Living with drugs. Routledge.
Guttmannova, K., Skinner, M.L., Oesterle, S., White, H.R., Catalano, R.F. and Hawkins, J.D., 2019. The interplay between marijuana-specific risk factors and marijuana use over the course of adolescence. Prevention Science, pp.1-11.
Lancaster, K., Seear, K. and Treloar, C., 2015. Laws prohibiting peer distribution of injecting equipment in Australia: A critical analysis of their effects. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(12), pp.1198-1206.
Lipperman‐Kreda, S., Paschall, M.J., Robert F, S. and Morrison, C.N., 2018. Places and social contexts associated with simultaneous use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana among young adults. Drug and alcohol review, 37(2), pp.188-195.
Litt, D.M., Kilmer, J.R., Tapert, S.F. and Lee, C.M., 2016. Marijuana use and abuse in adolescence. In The Oxford Handbook of Adolescent Substance Abuse.
Martin, J.H. and Bonomo, Y.A., 2016. Medicinal cannabis in Australia: the missing links. Medical Journal of Australia, 204(10), pp.371-373.
Mason, W.A., Fleming, C.B. and Haggerty, K.P., 2016. Prevention of Marijuana Misuse. Marijuana and Mental Health, p.199.
Mather, L.E., Rauwendaal, E.R., Moxham-Hall, V.L. and Wodak, A.D., 2015. THE ISSUE OF MEDICINAL CANNABIS IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIA. Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity, 3(2).
Snijder, M., Stapinski, L., Lees, B., Newton, N., Champion, K., Chapman, C., Ward, J. and Teesson, M., 2018. Substance Use Prevention Programs for Indigenous Adolescents in the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: Protocol for a Systematic Review. JMIR research protocols, 7(2).
