Is Pushing Dope Dopey?

Back when I had my own political party, I thought I could influence the right side of politics with intellectually consistent and principled policy decisions.

I knew the Liberals had lost their way and risked fading away unless there was a safety valve for people to express their unhappiness but not send the country to the left.

It didn’t work but I am not sorry I tried. Better to have a go and not succeed than do nothing but complain.

Perhaps if the Party had continued for a couple of decades it could have gained some traction. There were some reasons it didn’t.

The most compelling one was the results. Despite spending millions on a campaign we were beaten by the Animal Justice Party and the ro-marijuana people.

At least the Animal Justice mob had a really good looking model on their posters to entice people to vote for them. But the marijuana campaign had nothing..no posters, no how to votes, no public face.

That’s when I knew the gig was up.

Incredibly, the same non campaign this time saw them secure 5.5% of the QLD first preference senate vote – finishing just behind One Nation.

Nationally, they got a similar number of votes as Clive Palmer did and he spent $100 million.

So what’s the story here? Are Aussie voters a bunch of dopers or dopes?

The push to legalise marijuana has been on for ages. It’s policy for the Green left who’s website states their aim is:

This has happened elsewhere in the world and some hail it as a success while others point out the disturbing link between cannabis use and psychosis.

Earlier this week there was a tragic school shooting in America. The New York Times reported that the 18 year old killer was a weed user.

It was interesting to see that reference (which was a statement from someone who knew him) was later removed from the story.

Here's what was originally written

It was a similar story for another high school shooter in  Florida. He was a heavy user and told detectives he heard voices.

The Texas church shooter who killed 26 people in 2017 had THC in his system. That’s the active hallucinogen in marijuana.

In places like Portland, where cannabis is legal there has been an escalation in violence. It’s a similar trend in Denver and other places.

Now that’s not to say there is a direct link to marijuana use and crazed violence but there is plenty of evidence that regular use of cannabis, particularly by young people, causes psychosis and other mental health issues.

Psychosis and mental health issues are often a significant factor in violent and extremist behaviour.

So, is the push for legal dope a smart move or one of the dopiest things we can do?