Private growers can grow but can’t buy seeds, can’t use artifical “methodologies” but commercial growers can and the list goes on and on..
The haze of cannabis is everywhere right now. Germany has recently become the latest country to move towards legalising recreational cannabis, following in the footsteps of Uruguay, Malta, Canada and parts of the United States. Even Thailand has begun distributing one million cannabis plants to households after dropping it from the official list of prohibited substances.
Australia has not been left out. In the last couple months, Legalise Cannabis Party members in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia have tabled bills to legalise recreational cannabis use.
And at a federal level, the Greens tabled a bill last month, which would provide for the registration of cannabis strains and the establishment of a national agency overseeing a new commercial cannabis industry.
Many policy experts both here and overseas, however, remain very worried about a for-profit industry – namely the potential for commercial interests to promote regular cannabis use.
Non-profit supply models offer an alternative, including allowing people to grow cannabis for their own personal consumption. But what do we know about home-growing cannabis in Australia?
Our research on cannabis growing in the ACT
The Australian Capital Territory is showing the way forward. In 2020, ACT passed a law to allow people to possess, use and grow cannabis. It is now legal to grow up to two cannabis plants per person (up to a maximum of four per household) for personal consumption.
We have been studying the experiences of these cannabis growers in the ACT. Our research provides important lessons for policymakers across the nation who are considering whether to allow home-growing as a legal source of cannabis supply.
We conducted in-depth interviews with 10 people who grow cannabis, exploring their growing techniques, what works well and what challenges they’ve faced.
Read more: We have options when it comes to regulating recreational cannabis
We were struck by the diversity of the growers we met. Some were growing for medicinal purposes because it is cheaper and more accessible. Others grew for recreational consumption, while some did it for the love of gardening.
But our main takeaway was how difficult it is to get a home-growing cannabis policy right. In the ACT, there are odd bits of law and outdated drug-policy thinking that can make it difficult for home growers to get started, access the supplies they need and share gardening knowledge.
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Sean Hocking
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