I used pot three times in my younger, more ridiculous years when I thought I still had an age to get a grip on life or the lack of it.
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Each time ended in wild, psychedelic euphoria and then disappointment.
The first time I said it had no effect, but was asked why I was trying to kick a small string of cotton round the room.
The second time was the Bicentennial year 1988, watching a few tall ships sailing up the East Coast, until suddenly there were 3000.
The third time a colleague rolled me a strong joint. I threw up for half an hour.
I asked the taxi driver to slow down but he said he was already doing 10km/h.
Fortunately for me I was destined for a benign life of passively watching other people have fun.
Now into my gentle years of conservatism and furious routine I am aghast at our young, dying from party drugs at open air concerts, or from overdoses, and brain-damaged, addiction.
So, it's a useful debate over whether we throw the law books at users and traffickers or change from a criminalised culture to a clinical and mental health epidemic.
RELATED: Is driving with medicinal cannabis in your system legal?
On a train heading for Sydney's Western suburbs I watched a young mother on a methadone program drift in an out of consciousness with her three-year-old, while another passenger and I desperately tried to keep the kid from falling overboard.
The mother would perk up and chat away to us and then the eyes rolled back and she drifted off again.
It was traumatic.
The Queensland Productivity Commission suggests five per cent of Australians have an addiction or substance abuse problem and about one in six Australians are or have used illegal drugs at some stage.
The Tasmanian Greens last year proposed decriminalising drugs for personal use, as opposed to legalising drug use, which lifts all restrictions and lets the world go to pot.
The proposal made sense in a way, in that it could stop wasting police resources or filling up prisons.
Yes, we could decriminalise small use but how much of it is genuine health reform and how much is merely a retreat from the traditional law and order approach which isn't working.
There appears to be a view that marijuana is a harmless trip with no side-effects and small personal use never hurt anyone.
I guess marijuana is like smokes and alcohol. They can all kill you, whether directly or indirectly.
The science surrounding decriminalisation varies but there appears to be a consensus that smoking pot can hurt you if you persist with it.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention argues that marijuana affects brains in babies, children, and teenagers.
"Studies suggest that marijuana use by mothers during pregnancy could be linked to problems with attention, memory, problem-solving skills, and behaviour in their children."
The CDCP says marijuana can make the heart beat faster and can make blood pressure higher immediately after use.
It could also lead to increased risk of stroke, heart disease, and other vascular diseases.
The ACT leads the nation in drug law reform but the ACT health agency warns that: "Frequent and long-term cannabis use can reduce your brain function and negatively affect your mental health. It can also make you more likely to experience psychoses, or even develop schizophrenia..."
Nicole Lee, a professor at the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University, says Australia should look at cases overseas, where governments have decriminalised illicit drugs.
She says we must move away from punishing drug users with criminal charges if we are serious about treating it as a health issue.
"In order to be able to provide treatment and to be able to provide education, we need to move as far away as possible from the criminal justice system, and that's what decriminalisation does," she said.
Overseas in Portugal decriminalisation led to a dramatic reduction in users.
The reduction involved 100,000 heroin users dropping to 33,000.
Portugal now has the lowest level of drug-related deaths in Western Europe.
However, in Portland, Oregon, rates of drug use increased after decriminalisation and the overdose death rate hit an all-time high of 1069 deaths in 2021, or a 40 per cent increase over 2020.
The Queensland Productivity Commission argues that decriminalisation could cut prison populations by up to 30 per cent and save up to $270 million a year in prison costs.
So regardless of whether marijuana is harmful, or a stepping-stone to harder drugs, the question is whether decriminalising of small usage will increase the harm or lead to proper health treatment.
It may be too simplistic to say you are a dope if you smoke dope, but it may be instructive to know where you're going and how hard is it to come back.
And if you get hooked on marijuana and/or hard drugs, how do you fund your habit after you've used up your savings and assets?
Crime.
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