THE world won’t be a better place if everyone can go and “pull a few cones” at their pleasure, a fired-up New England MP Barnaby Joyce says.
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Mr Joyce came out all guns blazing against The Greens recent call to legalise marijuana for recreational use and suggested it could lead to more problems on the region’s roads.
“I don’t think anyone is seriously saying the world is going to be a better place when we can all go home at night and pull a few cones,” Mr Joyce said.
“This is just bullshit.”
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“We’ve been struggling for so long to deal with people driving down the road half-cut, I do not want to drive down the road meeting people smashed.”
He also said it would belittle, and risk losing everybody on, the “medical cannabis issue” by getting the two matters confused.
An online poll conducted by The Leader found readers were split on the issue.
Forty-four per cent of respondents said the government should legalise pot, while 40 per cent said the focus should be on medicinal cannabis.
Only 13 per cent said it shouldn’t be legalised because it was a gateway drug.
Earlier this week, Tamworth medicinal cannabis advocate Lucy Haslam said it wasn’t her battle but saw more merit in the proposal in terms of harm minimisation.
“It’s not quite the demon the powers-that-be like you to think,” she said.
“It’s not my battle to fight,” she said.
“The sick need support, recreational users don’t need support.”
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the country’s current approach to illicit drugs was an “unmitigated disaster”.
“We can take this out of the hands of drug dealers and crime gangs,” Senator Di Natale said.