recreational cannabis now legal in ACT, page-22

I'm not sure why the ACT legalisation legislation is seen as such a big deal either way for the future of a legal, regulated recreational cannabis industry. It is a long way from creating a formal market, simply legislating what is already the case in the ACT and most States - ie. that personal use and possession laws are rarely enforced for non-trafficable quantities. The reaction of conservative politicians yesterday and today tells me that they have not yet come around to the legalisation agenda. Or maybe they are just waiting for Alan Jones to tell them what to think. It will take a much bigger "lobbying effort" by big tobacco and big pharma to "convince" them otherwise (insert your own take on these euphemisms for gaining political support). The community reaction in Canberra is very much "ho hum" or "der". As a supporter of harm-minimisation approaches to drug issues, I hope this is a sign of some change in prevailing attitudes but I think not. As far as medicinal cannabis is concerned, I'd like there to be more clinical trials and longitudinal studies before the industry gets too overheated. There seem to be so many claims (beyond proven relief of some types of pain) that the hype reads more like the packaging on "Alternative Therapies".