In what seems to be like a shock success grassroots marketing campaign, Legalise Hashish Australia has emerged as a vote winner within the Senate, performing strongly in a number of states and even rivalling One Nation’s vote in Queensland.
The micro occasion, which because the identify suggests, is pushing for marijuana to be legalised, adopted up its success in final yr’s Western Australian election, the place it picked up two higher home seats.
Based on the newest Senate outcomes, Legalise Hashish has picked up between 2% and seven% of the Senate vote in most states and the Northern Territory.
The occasion has 7.5% of the vote within the NT, 3.9% in Western Australia, 6.7% in Queensland, 3.4% in Victoria and three% in New South Wales, with 38.6% of the whole vote counted nationally as of Sunday noon.
The occasion recorded simply 1.8% of the vote within the ACT, the place hashish possession has already been decriminalised for folks aged 18 years and over.
The occasion was beforehand often known as the Assist Finish Marijuana Prohibition (Hemp) occasion, and had been in politics for near 30 years. The occasion is run out of the Hemp Embassy in Nimbin in northern NSW, and runs on a single coverage platform: to deal with hashish like tobacco and alcohol.
The occasion says folks ought to be capable to develop as a lot as they need, but when they wish to promote it, they need to be licensed and charged charges.
Legalise Hashish Australia has round 221,000 followers on Fb, however ran no promoting on both Google or Fb in the course of the election. That is one thing the occasion has mentioned is as a result of the platforms won't permit them to promote with hashish within the identify of the web page.
The occasion’s identify and distinctive hashish leaf emblem could alone have been a major attractor of votes. In Queensland, the place the occasion has polled highest, it was third on the Senate poll paper.
For comparability, the occasion is trailing Pauline Hanson’s One Nation by simply 1% in her Queensland stronghold, the place she is at the moment combating to win the final Senate spot within the state.
The success is also partially as a result of pandemic issue. Australians had been consuming hashish in document portions in the course of the pandemic, in keeping with the newest nationwide wastewater drug monitoring report launched by the Australian Legal Intelligence Fee.
The report discovered there was an all-time excessive common hashish consumption recorded in August 2021 in NSW, NT, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, with document capital metropolis hashish consumption in October in Queensland and the ACT.
In Victoria, Motive occasion MP Fiona Patten put up a invoice in parliament to decriminalise medication, the place as a substitute police would problem a obligatory discover and referral to drug schooling or therapy to folks believed to have used or possessed a drug of dependence.
Regardless of decriminalisation being supported by the United Nations and the World Well being Group and in Australia by the Australian Medical Affiliation, the Royal Australian School of Normal Practitioners and the Royal Australasian School of Physicians, in addition to a number of key drug and alcohol our bodies, each the Labor and Liberal events are against the invoice.
Guardian Australia has sought remark from Legalise Hashish Australia.
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