Alan Jones Is Australia’s Best Hope for Legalised Recreational Marijuana

Yesterday the internet lost its collective shit when major news outlets reported that Tony Abbott has come out in favour of the legalisation of medicinal cannabis. Abbott wrote that he has “no problem with the medical use of cannabis” and that “if a drug is needed for a valid medicinal purpose and is being administered safely there should be no question of its legality”. Besides being perhaps the first time an opinion held by Tony Abbott wasn’t nauseatingly objectionable, the move surprised a lot of people who assumed that the legalisation of marijuana in any form in Australia was about as far off as the sun imploding.

Prime Minister Tony “Pro-marijuana” Abbott – never thought I’d see the day… http://t.co/lhh92dXYQJ

— David Ramli (@Davidramli) September 17, 2014

But the Prime Minister’s not the only one jumping on the Legalise It bandwagon; in recent days no less than four state governments have flagged plans to push for the legalisation of medical marijuana. On Tuesday the Victorian government introduced laws that would allow for medical trials of marijuana ahead of the state election in November, while the New South Wales government announced it was forming a Parliamentary working group to set up a clinical trial of medicinal cannabis yesterday.

Interestingly, all this momentum is coming from Coalition governments, some of whom opposed the idea of medical marijuana for a long time. Last week the Tasmanian government changed its tune when Health Minister Michael Ferguson told a Parliamentary inquiry that he supports “appropriately conducted clinical trials” of medical marijuana, only a couple of months after he and other senior Tasmanian government figures publicly opposed that exact idea. A few days ago, WA Deputy Premier and Health Minister Kim Hames went one step further and announced he’s written to his federal counterpart, Peter Dutton, urging a national clinical trial — despite being on the record against medical marijuana as recently as two months ago.

So what’s going on? Why are all these conservative governments with a history of “tough-on-drugs” policies and attitudes suddenly seeing the light when it comes to medicinal marijuana? To answer that, it’s worth going back to the Tony Abbott announcement from yesterday. Abbott didn’t make a public statement on his newfound support — in fact, he hasn’t commented publicly on the issue at all since it broke. Instead, he wrote about it in a letter to Sydney shock-jock Alan Jones, which Jones then read out on his 2GB morning program.

Jones has been extremely active on the pro-legalisation issue lately; he’s spent months talking up the cause of the Haslam family from Tamworth, whose 24-year-old son Dan has terminal cancer and uses marijuana to relieve the side-effects of his chemotherapy. In that same segment where he aired the Prime Minister’s views, Jones interviewed Dan and his mother, and spent a good twenty minutes putting forth the case for not just legalised medicinal marijuana, but recreational drug use as well.

Some of Jones’ quotes from that segment read like they came from the mouth of a HEMP Party spokesperson. Take this one: “Is there any point in legislating to stop people doing what they want to do? Many people, apparently, want to take substances — including alcohol — that alter their mind or their consciousness. Most people, it seems, are able to do this without causing themselves or others excessive harm. The likelihood of harm would be reduced even further, surely, by a regulated industry which restricted supply, providing warnings to consumers and monitored the content of what was sold.”

Or this one: “When all’s said and done, there has to be a point where individuals of a certain age — rather than the state — are responsible for what they choose to put into their own bodies. The state’s role ought to be limited to informing its people about those substances, and attempting to control and regulate those substances to minimise harm. To try to ban them is to work against human nature, with enormous negative consequences.”

Bear in mind this is the same Alan Jones who was found to have helped incite the Cronulla riots. The full audio’s below if you want to have a listen for yourself.

This isn’t the only unlikely issue Jones has thrown his considerable influence behind; he’s been an extremely vocal opponent of coal-seam gas projects in New South Wales and Queensland, and personally took up the defence of Jonathan Moylan, a young hippie activist whose fake ANZ press release “announcing” the bank was withdrawing funding support for the Maules Creek coalmine wiped $314 million off Whitehaven Coal’s share market value. In a speech to the National Press Club on land security and CSG in 2011, Jones came across less like a conservative talk show host and more like a rural Greens candidate.

Jones’ opinion clearly still has significant weight; he’s kept 2GB at the top of Sydney’s radio market share for ten straight years, and not everyone gets a personal letter from the Prime Minister when they ask for one. While it’s unlikely conservative governments will move to legalise recreational drug use like Alan would like any time soon, he can probably take a good part of the credit for thrusting the medical marijuana debate into the public eye and keeping it there. If you’re a young activist fighting for your right to blaze it up, you’ve got a friend in old mate Alan.

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Feature image via Brett Levin/Flickr Creative Commons.