First the Democrats nominate the first ticket ever to favour complete federal legalisation of cannabis.
Now, even Donald Trump is making positive noises.
Get ready for massive economic opportunities.

Legalise Cannabis NSW Jeremy Buckingham alerted NSW Parliament to the importance of the Harris-Walz ticket in the US Presidential Election to the cannabis industry in Australia and globally:

"I realise that there are some who view cannabis legalisation as a minor issue, a distraction from the heavy-hitting policy levers of health, education, transport and the economy. 

I also realise that there are some who fail to draw a direction connection by what is happening in Milwaukee or Nevada to what is about to happen in Newcastle or Wagga. 

Sometimes it takes an outsider – an MP from a minor party  – to sound the alarm that we need to wake up to an economic opportunity before it is too late. 

We need to join the dots here. 

When Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her Democratic running mate, they became the first major US party ticket to support federal legalisation of cannabis. 

Walz completes the pro-cannabis ticket with a strong history of supporting cannabis reform, including signing the bill to make adult-use cannabis legal in Minnesota. 

Harris has recently talked about the racial disparity of cannabis prohibition and has indicated her support for full cannabis legalisation. 

In March she said: “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.” 

In 2023, Walz signed a bill into law that created a legal cannabis market in Minnesota, made cannabis use for adults legal and expunged low-level cannabis convictions. 

This comes after President Biden initiated a review earlier this year to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. 

This would be the most significant shift in cannabis legislation in 50 years and would pave the way to full legalization and the ability to produce cannabis for export. 

Should the Democrat ticket be successful in November – and this is looking increasingly likely – we are likely to see a seismic shift in the United States cannabis industry – where 38 out of 50 states already have some form of legal cannabis. 

In the decade after Colorado and Washington legalized recreational cannabis use for adults, we are already seeing legal cannabis sales outstripping chocolate and craft beer combined. 

Americans are spending an eye-watering $33 billion a year on legal cannabis. 

By the end of this decade, cannabis sales are expected to outstrip alcohol sales. 

We are living through an economic revolution that NSW ignores at its peril. 

And the depressing news is that we are already travelling in the wrong direction. 

Data released this month by the Office of Drug Control shows that the volume of imported medical cannabis climbed almost 70 per cent in the calendar year of 2023 to 42,000 kilograms. 

This outstrips the amount grown locally by 60 per cent. 

Compare that to just three years ago, when only 7,000 kilograms was imported, and almost 17,000 kilograms was homegrown. 

What we are seeing is a domestic cannabis industry that is close to stagnant in a rapidly expanding market where imports are flooding in from Canada, South Africa, Denmark and Portugal. 

Even imports from economic minor North Macedonia climbed 3000 per cent in 2023. 

Everyone wants a larger slice of this lucrative and exploding market, it seems, except Australia. 

We need to start work on this, and we need to start as soon as possible. 

This Government has already shown commendable foresight by forming a Hemp Industry Taskforce, which is currently collecting data. 

A first step would be to form something similar for the cannabis industry, before massive imports from the United States mean that it is too late."