It’s Saturday night, 2 young men have hopped in a cab and are on their way to Northbridge. One (let’s call him Johnny) is an absolute piss-tank and is going to smash Jaeger bombs all night until he can’t walk straight, the other (his name is David), is going to have a couple of drinks but he’s more interested in buying a stick off his friend and heading home early to smoke a few cones and watch Space Jam.
4 hours later our 2 friends leave the bar. Johnny is absolutely written off, he’s been kicked out of the bar for yelling at the bar staff and on his way out he tries to hit a bouncer but he’s too drunk to make contact. David walks behind, wishing his friend didn’t get this drunk every weekend but he doesn’t mind too much because he’s bought his pot and he’s going to meet his other friends at their house to watch movies and eat Doritos. Johnny wants a kebab first so they line up; get their kebabs and then move outside to look for a cab. As they move outside David tries to slide his wallet into his pocket but it slips and drops onto the concrete, open. He panics as his bag of weed is inside and has fallen onto the ground. He quickly stoops down to pick it up but as he does a shadow falls across him, he looks up and there stand two police officers looking smugly at both the boys.
Johnny cops a move on notice and gets sheepishly in a cab. David on the other hand gets a court summons and has to phone his mum explaining that he’s been charged with drug possession.
This is not a lament on why cannabis should be legalised, or at the very least decriminalised, in Western Australia. This is a warming to the young people, my peers, who may not be aware of the seriousness of the new cannabis laws in WA.
Think about 10 grams of something. Imagine it, there in your hand. Now imagine 10 grams of cannabis in your hand. Doesn’t seem like much. You could probably roll a few joints with ten grams. Not a big deal right? Well actually it is a big deal. It’s now enough of a deal to send you to jail for 2 years or to face a $2000 fine.
On August 1 2011 the new cannabis laws in WA came into effect. They reduced the amount of cannabis found on a person to a mere 10 grams in order for them to be charged and to face penalties of 2 years imprisonment or a $2000 fine. 100 grams on a person is now enough to be considered a quantity to supply or sell which could result in 2 years imprisonment or a $20,000 fine. It is also now against the law to display or sell any smoking paraphernalia in shows, i.e. - you can’t buy bongs in shops anymore.
The new laws have also introduced an alternative to going to court if you’re caught with cannabis with the Cannabis Intervention Requirement (CIR). A CIR can be issued to someone who’s found with LESS than 10 grams (let’s hope the WA police force carry around a set of weights with them) or who is found with a smoking implement which has detectable traces of cannabis in it.
If the police officer who has apprehended you should so decide they can issue you with a CIR which requires you to book and attend a Cannabis Intervention Session (CIS) within 28 days of the CIR being issued. A CIS is basically a counselling session. An adult can be issued one CIR and then if they’re caught again they have to go to court, and young person between 14 and 17 can have 2 before they’re due in court. A police officer is not obliged to issue a CIR however, it is completely at their discretion whether they issue one or not.
Now it would be easy at this point to begin an uppity uni student rant on the “realities” that smoking pot does less damage to a person than drinking alcohol, no violent crimes are ever committed by people who are high on cannabis, yet alcohol is the reason for a considerable amount of the patrons visiting Charlie Gairdner’s on a Saturday night, but I don’t want to go down that path. Not because I don’t think that path is valid, but because the stark reality of the situation in WA is that these laws are real. These laws affect everyone in WA and these laws can now have a serious affect on you, should you choose to carry cannabis.
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