DAMON Cronshaw's report in yesterday's Newcastle Herald noting a substantial fall in Hunter region cannabis convictions asked whether the rise of medical marijuana had some role to play in the decline, and noted last week's move by US President Joe Biden to pardon all those convicted for possession of cannabis under federal law.
Mr Biden has also asked state governors to follow suit by pardoning those with corresponding possession convictions at a state level.
The US move is globally significant, and not simply because so many countries, Australia included, will tend to follow where the US leads, but because it led the criminalisation of marijuana in the first place in the early 1900s.
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It was only in the final decades of the 20th century that alcohol began to be seen by society as a drug like any other, differentiated only by being, effectively, the only legal mind-altering substance available.
Now, warnings to the public routinely speak of "drug and alcohol" use or abuse in the same breath.
But as medical warnings about the potential dangers of alcohol have gathered force, society's opinions on the use of cannabis - and indeed other illicit drugs - are going the other way.
There is no doubt that in America, convictions for cannabis and other drug use fall more heavily on the non-white population, as President Biden acknowledged.
As Greens MP Cate Faehrmann told the Herald, cannabis law in this country has worked in such a way that those in better-off areas feel the law more lightly if caught in possession.
While a criminal conviction ends, in theory, once a punishment is served, the black stamp of a criminal record tends to stay with people all their lives, with well-recognised negative impacts.
For social reasons such as these, the decriminalisation of cannabis - and drug law reform in general - makes admirable sense.
But at the same time, the libertarian outlook towards drugs brings with it an implied acceptance of a wide range of behaviours that society previously sought to restrict, for better or worse.
In reality, the "culture wars" that are being fought out alongside the physical wars of our time are very much about the future direction of Western society.
Medical cannabis has its uses.
But history shows us that cannabis is not always a good prescription, especially for younger minds.
Its decriminalisation is a social experiment, the results of which may not be evident for some time.
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