A Bill That Could Change Everything for Cannabis in WA

The moment we have been working toward

Today, inside the Legislative Council, I gave notice of motion to introduce the Misuse of Drugs Amendment (Lawful Personal Use of Cannabis) Bill 2026.

Four words carry the weight of everything: lawful personal use of cannabis.

This is not a radical idea. It is a logical, evidence-based, humane response to a law that has been failing Western Australians for decades. As a GP, I spent years watching people manage pain, anxiety, and illness with a plant that the law treated as a moral failing. The science moved on. The community moved on. The law did not.

What staying still actually costs us

Here is the uncomfortable truth. Right now, an ordinary person in WA who uses cannabis for personal relief, someone who has never harmed a soul, risks a criminal record that can cost them their job, their housing, and their future. We are not protecting families with that approach. We are damaging them.

In my years as a GP, I never once saw a patient's health improve because we punished them for a personal choice. Criminalisation does not reduce use. It just adds suffering on top of suffering. And for communities already under pressure, that additional burden can be devastating.

If that injustice frustrates you as much as it frustrates me, I want you to come and watch the debates unfold. Subscribe to my YouTube channel so you never miss a moment of this fight as it plays out in Parliament.

The evidence-first case for change

This Bill is built on something the opponents of reform tend to avoid: evidence. Jurisdictions around the world that have moved to legalise personal cannabis use have not collapsed into chaos. They have created safer, more transparent systems, redirected police resources toward serious crime, and generated revenue that funds real public services.

That is the conversation Western Australia deserves to have. Not one driven by fear of a plant, but one grounded in data, in public health, and in the basic dignity of treating adults as capable of making informed choices about their own lives.

We are the forward thinkers. We are the ones who read the research, listen to the medical community, and refuse to let outdated ideology stand between people and sensible policy. This Bill is ours, and today it has formally begun its journey.

This is just the beginning

Giving notice is the first step. The road ahead involves scrutiny, debate, and no small amount of resistance from those who prefer the comfort of the status quo. I welcome every moment of it, because every question asked on the floor of the Legislative Council is another opportunity to put the evidence on the record.

Western Australians who use cannabis personally should not carry the weight of a criminal system designed for a different era. That is the simple, human case at the heart of this Bill.

You can read the formal notice of motion in the official Hansard record of the Legislative Council. And if you believe it is time for real reform, I would love you to stand with us. Join Legalise Cannabis WA today and be part of the change that is already underway.