Should cannabis be taxed and regulated?

After three-quarters of a century of prohibition, Australia's cannabis industry is the same financial size as her gold industry, twice the size of her wine industry and three-quarters the size of the nation's beer industry [1, 24 June 2000 no. 32]. More Australians consume cannabis than any other illicit drug. Of the 15 million Australians aged 14 years and over, 5.7 million report having ever used cannabis and 2.6 million report using cannabis in the 12 months prior to interview [2]. Criminal sanctions for people cultivating, selling or consuming cannabis enjoyed strong community support for many years. Civil penalties are now more generally favoured. One of the major problems with either option is the preservation of a criminal supply source for an industry with an annual turnover estimated to be $5 billion [3], representing 1% of Australia's Gross Domestic Product. The historical basis of Australia's cannabis policy is weak. Australia participated in a League of Nations International meeting in Geneva in 1925 where a decision was made to prohibit cannabis, along with several other drugs [4]. Although cannabis was virtually unheard of in Australia at that time, Commonwealth authorities requested the states to conform to the new international legal framework. The NSW Under-Secretary of the Colonial Secretary's Department responded that 'the omission of that drug from the operation of the Act would possibly be of small moment, but having been considered by the conference as requiring to be included, it might perhaps be as well, if practicable, to bring it within the purview of the dangerous drugs laws' [4]. Victoria was the first state to prohibit the unauthorized use of cannabis and did so in 1927; by 1959 all other states had followed [5]. Cannabis prohibition remains in force in all states and territories in Australia today, although four jurisdictions now provide a civil penalty option and four jurisdictions now provide a cautioning option for some minor offences and the severity of penalties has been reduced during the last decade or so [6]. The financial cost of cannabis prohibition is unknown , but presumed to be considerable. It is conceivable that cannabis prohibition may have actually increased consumption by guaranteeing extraordinary profits to suppliers. Despite the considerable resources allocated to the enforcement of cannabis prohibition, the majority of respondents to a recent survey on drug use in Australia rated the availability of cannabis as 'very easy' in all eight states …