THE HISTORY OF CANNABIS IN AUSTRALIA
The last five years have seen an emergence — technically, a re-emergence — of cannabis legalisation and decriminalisation in Australia. That’s reflected not necessarily in policy (although there’s definitely been some good steps forward) but more so in public sentiment. Today, it’s become increasingly normalised, with many more companies and organisations to get involved with. Since 2016, we’ve had the travelling Hemp Health and Innovation Expo offering education and advocacy. There’s also been the Who Are We Hurting protests, garnering national media attention, as well as the 420 In The Park demonstrations — aka Cannabis Picnics — on April 20 in Melbourne, Sydney, Nimbin, Hobart and now Canberra.
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST WEED DEALER
As you may remember from history class, Great Britain decided to colonise Australia because of convicts. In 1779, Sir Joseph Banks stood before a committee of the House of Commons in Westminster. There were more convicts than they knew what to do with and his “solution” was Australia. The opposition thought it was too risky and too far with a sailing-time of six months. But Banks fought for the colonisation of Australia, eventually swaying the minds of his influential friends — King George III amongst them — to become the “father of Australia”.
Sir Joseph Banks was also the first recorded weed dealer in England and Australia. He was a botanist and, more importantly, a cannabis firebrand. There was another possible reason Great Britain decided to colonise Australia, one you probably don’t remember from history class — cannabis. Back then, hemp was to Britain as oil is to us now — vital. It had been this way, a critical natural resource, for thousands of years reaching a new level of importance from the 15th century onwards. While the Age of Exploration evolved into the Age of Imperialism, the entire global economy depended on ships and thus cannabis — it made the sails and ropes. Fun fact: the word ‘canvas’ originated from the word ‘cannabis’.
Britain’s wealth and power directly depended on its access to hemp. Around 100 tons of rope and sails went into each ship,
