Rallies for marijuana legalisation

By Nick Everett and Anne Pavy

BRISBANE -- 1000 people marched here on October 21 to demand the legalisation of marijuana in Queensland.

Speakers included representatives from HEMP and the Queensland Public Health Services Coalition and a civil liberties lawyer.

At the last ALP state conference, a motion was passed by 80% of conference delegates supporting marijuana decriminalisation. However, Premier Wayne Goss has failed to act on this policy.

The rally was followed by a vocal march to Parliament House, where organisers again addressed the crowd and a ``smoke-in'' occurred. A large number of people participated, and the police arrested three of them.

In Perth on October 21, 300 people gathered on the steps of Parliament House for a rally organised by the National Organisation For the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Bill Saunders, professor of addiction studies at Curtin University, spoke about how ludicrous it is to ban soft drugs such as marijuana which do little harm in comparison to legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.

MLC Alana Mac Tiernan (ALP) from the Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform told the crowd that 4000 Western Australians are prosecuted every year for marijuana use.

Lawyer Graham Dropitt spoke on the medical benefits of marijuana and the problems caused by the current laws.

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