It’s too early to tell, but things are, according to the Guardian, looking good for progressives in the Senate.

David Shoebridge the leader of the Greens said during the campaign that regulated adult use cannabis would be on the table if the Greens had any semblance of power in either of the houses.

As of Sunday AM the Guardian knows this

It looks as though Labor, the Greens and the progressive independent David Pocock may together form an absolute majority in the Senate.

Labor and the Greens will disagree on plenty of issues, but both will have an incentive to ensure success in the next term. And with up to four Greens elected to the House of Representatives, legislation with Greens support will have a handy buffer in the lower house.

The Greens look set to win a senator in every state, which would give them a total of 12. They appear to have gained a seat in Queensland, ousting LNP senator Amanda Stoker, and in South Australia from the former Centre Alliance independent bloc. Former senator Nick Xenophon’s comeback bid was a failure, sitting on 2.7% of the primary vote when counting was paused on Saturday night. The Greens are also set to take Labor’s third seat in New South Wales, the vulnerable seat that Kristina Keneally vacated to make her ill-fated run for Fowler.

A large swing to Labor in Western Australia has put them on course to win three seats, in addition to the incumbent Greens senator. That third Labor seat also comes at the expense of the Liberals.

Read the full Senate analysis here 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/22/senate-may-have-a-progressive-majority-as-greens-and-david-pocock-make-election-gains

This will, we suggest, give them a modicum of wiggle room to push cannabis onto the Labor govt agenda.

Musing aloud I’d guess that Labor will, like Biden in the US, kick that can down the road for as long as they can indicating that they have far more important pieces of legislation that they need to get passed in the interim.

Essentially, there is a possibility for the Greens to enact change on many aspects of cannabis decriminalization and regulation but they will get a lot of push back from a cautious labor government.

THE LEGALIZE CANNABIS PARTY

In terms of the Cannabis Party we aren’t seeing any reporting yet that preferences will get one of the candidates across the line for a Senate seat but in terms of raw numbers but they aren’t doing badly considering they are a single issue party.

On taking a quick look at the actual numbers of people voting for cannabis candidates across the country the party has done better in most states than many of the other single issue parties on the ballot

The party received no major funding  and had virtually zero media coverage before the election and isn’t far off One Nation in terms of ticks on the ballot

As of Sunday morning Australia time the Australian Electoral Commission has the following raw data of votes counted

Australia has quite a complicated preferences system that comes into play for Senate seats and as you can see below the Cannabis party have, as yet ,not applied their preferences.

Does this mean that as a block they may have enough votes across the country to give them some horsetrading power to get a candidate (Michael Balderstone?) into Canberra.

It is too early to call and stranger things have happened with Western Australia recently getting two bums on seats in the Western Australian Senate with a ridiculously low primary vote.

We would suggest, though, that it gives the party some negotiating power with the Greens to force the agenda

First preferences by candidate

NEW SOUTH WALES

VICTORIA

QUEENSLAND

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

TASMANIA

AUSTRALIAN CAPITOL TERRITORY (Canberra & Environs)

The make-up of the Australian Senate post-election is always very tricky to determine as preferences and deals fly back and forth for the next few weeks ut our guess is that the numbers polled by the cannabis party have provided a good reason for the Greens to take up the cannabis cause and run with it.

We shall see.

As the Guardian implies it looks like the Senate by its very nature in this upcoming term will be “progressive”

Does this mean we should expect cannabis legislation that’s actually serious or just some tinkering with the medical side of things.

Time will tell.

We are in San Diego this weekend at the

There are now several pending Congressional Bills related to cannabis including decriminalization and rescheduling of the drug. Thirty-six states have some form of medical marijuana, 18 States, D.C. Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Tribal nations have recreational marijuana laws with many other states exploring recreational marijuana for 2022. These continued changes in laws are impacting our courts and society. It is also creating a dynamic and sometimes confusing landscape for various disciplines including Law Enforcement, Judges, Drug Court Professionals, the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry, Academia, and Employers Human Resource Associations & Organizations.

As a result of this confusing landscape, the American Judges Association (AJA) partnered with California Western School of Law (CWSL), Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA), Colorado Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office (HSO), the National Judicial College (NJC), New England Association of Recovery Court Professionals (NEARCP) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and are bringing forward a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary approach to cannabis issues facing all of these disciplines.

Here are a couple of photos of our set up

Do come and say hello to  June McLoughlin our roving cannabis law report education editor who has more than kindly agreed to fly the flag as it was a little pricy to fly from Sydney to San Diego for the weekend!

Thanks, June and please if you are at the conference do make sure you drop by and say hello.

Here’s the latest list

Marijuana Stipulated Settlement Agreements

GREEN LION in St. Helens, a marijuana retailer, will pay a $7,250 fine OR serve a 29-day license suspension for three violations.

HANLIN FARMS a marijuana producer, will pay a $1,750 fine OR serve a seven-day license suspension for one violation.

LUMINOUS GARDENS a marijuana producer, will pay a $4,500 fine OR serve an 18-day license suspension for two violations.

PACIFIC NW FARMS a marijuana producer, will pay a $5,000 fine OR serve a 20-day license suspension for two violations.

TH3 FARMS a marijuana producer, will pay a $8,745 fine OR serve a 53-day license suspension for three violations.

NOVA PATHS a marijuana processor, will pay a $30,000 fine OR serve an 18-day license suspension for packaging and labeling violations.