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August 19, 2022
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The lonely road to legal weed

A recent push from the South Australian Greens has renewed hope for the legalisation of recreational marijuana in SA, but local medicinal cannabis producers are wary of an emerging adult-use industry redirecting investment away from potentially game-changing research.

  • Words: David Simmons
  • Illustrations: Owen Lindsay

In late 2021, SA Greens Legislative Council Member Tammy Franks introduced a Bill that would legalise recreational cannabis for adult use in South Australia. “It is high time,” said Franks, during the introduction of the Bill.

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This article first ran in CityMag’s Winter 2022 print edition.
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The arguments in favour of legalisation are many – prohibition is expensive to police, medicinal cannabis is inaccessible to many despite legalisation of prescription weed, and Indigenous Australians are four times more likely to wind up in jail than others for simply smoking the plant. But in this latest push, Franks emphasised a point that would get the attention of both sides of Parliament: legalisation would be a windfall for the State Government.

A tax on marijuana sold for recreational use would bring in piles of cash for the State Government’s usual list of high priorities – hospitals, roads and schools – but would also create a budding industry in the form of dispensaries, growers, and even cellar door-like venues, where South Australians, as well as tourists, could try local dank kush.

“It would be a very discreet industry, but an industry nonetheless,” Franks tells CityMag.

“The dispensaries would be more like an Apple Store – it’s big business and it’s fancy.

“We do boast and have beautiful food and wine from our clean, green environment. Well, imagine beautiful food, wine and weed. It would just be another offering, and I think if we were to get that first-mover advantage then there is that tourism aspect.”

As of January 2020, Canberrans are no longer penalised for possessing or using small amounts of cannabis for recreational purposes, but if South Australia were to legalise marijuana for adult-use purposes soon, we would be the first state to do so.

But for all the possible economic benefits recreational weed could bring to the state, legalisation could have unintended effects on the bourgeoning local medicinal cannabis sector.

CEO of Australian medicinal cannabis company LeafCann, Elisabetta Faenza, is concerned a flourishing recreational marijuana sector could wreak havoc on her industry, which has already long been hamstrung by government inaction.

Elisabetta, whose company operates a medicinal cannabis facility in South Australia, was born with a rare genetic condition that saw her deal with a variety of life-threatening conditions as a young person, including seven strokes – her first at age 11.

The condition was so baffling doctors were unable to properly treat or even diagnose her, leading Elisabetta to start doing her own research. She discovered that as a side effect of her condition she produces more endocannabinoids than a regular person, which explained her rapid recovery from her strokes.

After discovering how the over-active endocannabinoid system assisted her, she founded LeafCann in 2016 with the purpose of helping others.

However, things were not so simple. Despite medicinal cannabis becoming legal in Australia in 2016, Elisabetta tells CityMag she had trouble getting through to the powers that be in SA, following the change in government in 2018 – despite her facility having been granted major project status.

“What we saw in South Australia is nothing ever eventuated. We put in blind bids, grant applications, really detailed due diligence with the government, but then heard nothing for months and months,” she says.

“Whereas in Victoria, we saw companies getting hundreds of millions of dollars to help them get their infrastructure started – because the facilities are incredibly expensive.

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“In the end, nothing ever eventuated [because] you need those signals from government for investors to come on board.”

Eventually, LeafCann secured a partnership with the University of Adelaide to explore how cannabis can help dementia patients, but Elisabetta emphasises this was organised by the Federal Government.

“You have a lot of plant scientists who are actually global leaders here in Adelaide. Really, we should have as strong a sector in South Australia, as in Victoria or Queensland, but it’s just not the case,” she says.

LeafCann now has a state-of-the-art narcotics warehouse in SA that can hold cannabinoid medicines, complete with top-notch security systems, and the company is seeing things ramp up post-COVID in terms of product development and sales of cannabis-based medicines.

However, with legalisation of recreational cannabis on the table once again, Elisabetta is worried a balance won’t be struck, and investment will flow away from a potentially life-changing sector that has been abandoned by the State Government towards those making money off recreational, or adult-use, cannabis.

“In some places, you’ve seen a flight of investment from medicinal into recreational, but probably more tellingly, you’re seeing a flight of facilities that are set up for medicinal adding in production of recreational cannabis,” Elisabetta says.

“Generally, what happens is companies become dedicated to adult-use and the development of those products which have a lower bar in terms of cost of production. So you have facilities downgraded so they can produce recreational cannabis.

“I’m not saying that adult-use is a good or a bad thing – it’s actually how it’s implemented that will determine whether it’s a good or a bad thing, and for me the standards are important. But simultaneously, concepts of equality and criminality are important – there’s been a lot of injustice done around the world, especially to minorities and people with lower incomes, who often turn to cannabis to self-medicate. So there’s a whole range of issues that need to be addressed.”

If you ask Tammy Franks, though, the need to legalise recreational cannabis is important because the medicinal sector has so far failed to get the drug into the hands of those who need it, due to supply constraints and a hefty price tag attached to TGA-approved products.

“Is this something we want criminals to be making money out of at the expense of quite often desperate people?” Franks says.

“It’s a war on people, this war on drugs, but it’s particularly a war on sick people when they see cannabis as self-medication, or indeed the affordable version of what they have a prescription for.”

CityMag approached the South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher for comment on the Greens’ Bill but did not receive a response.

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