The Greens Party’s attempt to legalize cannabis in Australia was blocked by the Labor and Coalition parties in the Senate on 27 November 2024 in a 24 to 13 vote against the Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023.

The defeated proposal had set out to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis at the national level, establishing the Cannabis Australia National Agency, or CANA, to license and oversee the commercial industry and maintain a national register of cannabis strains.

Home cultivation for personal use, as well as home processing of edibles, would have been explicitly allowed under the bill.

It would also have authorized the creation of cannabis cafes, where adults could consume cannabis in a social environment.

The Greens put out a statement shortly after the disappointing vote on Wednesday  26 November 2024 saying the parties that opposed the Bill were relics of the 1950’s and had “voted against progress”.

“We took a big step today from treating cannabis as part of the failing ‘war on drugs’ and instead putting forward a model that is safer, reduces harms and delivers for the millions of Australians who just want us to legalize it! 

“The support for this bill across the community is enormous and it’s why we know cannabis legalisation in this country is inevitable. 

“The Labor and Coalition parties joined together to try and hold Australia back in the 1950’s by blocking this desperately needed reform. 

“They keep pretending the war on drugs is working and that we all live in a world where drug use almost never happens - like the occasions when their own MPs are caught with drugs and swear it is a one off. “

Greens Senator and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge said: “Government data shows 8.8 million of adult Australians have consumed cannabis. The Labor and Liberal parties are happy to call all of these people criminals.

"That's a bloody disgrace. 

“My office keeps hearing from people using cannabis to deal with anxiety or pain, or just to relax. We think that adults should have the right to do just that. 

“If choosing cannabis instead of products from pharmaceutical corporations is working for you, as it does for many Australians, then you should have that choice. 

“If you’d rather have a brownie than a beer, or a gummy than a cigarette, of course you should be allowed to do that" he said.

“One day soon we will be able to sit together in a cannabis cafe and chill out together - preferably with a locally grown organic latte. Labor and the Coalition can’t hold us in the 1950’s for much longer. “

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