Does the law make a difference to cannabis use?

Given different states and territories have different cannabis laws, one would expect that if the laws had an effect on drug use these differences would show up in the Household Survey data. All research to date has shown that there is no significant difference in use across all jurisdictions. Where there has been an analysis of the effect of apprehension under different legal systems the data suggest the application of the civil or criminal law do not reduce cannabis use. The conclusion that one draws from this evidence is that the law in relation to cannabis, has little or no effect on the Australian population s use of cannabis. There is growing evidence as shown by increasing usage that more and more people are disregarding the law. Indeed when almost 40 percent of the population have at some stage disregarded the law then the law falls into disrepute. Simple Cannabis Offence Notices There have been few, if any, attempts to compare the benefits or otherwise of the ACT SCON system. ...  more