Using and cultivating small amounts of cannabis will be legal in the ACT from February 2020.
The ACT Legislative Assembly has passed a law allowing possession of up to 50gm per person and the growing of a maximum of four plants per household.
Cannabis – aka marijuana – may not be bought or sold.
While Commonwealth laws prohibit the possession of cannabis, it is unlikely the federal police would over-rule the ACT Legislative Assembly law.
The situation is somewhat cloudy, though, because the AFP provide the police officers who comprise the separate, contracted ACT Policing body.
And cannabis users have been warned there are still serious legal risks, including potential jail time, when growing or smoking cannabis in the ACT.
Given that many members of the federal parliament own houses and flats in Canberra, it is highly likely that some of them will take advantage of the right to grown their own, then roll their own, in the nation’s capital.
When they return to their home states, they will have to give up the grass: they’ll be banned from doing the same thing in their home state.
CLA looks forward to seeing photos of Prime Minister Scott Morrison lighting up at the Lodge, and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton tending his crop at his Canberra resident.