[Jan Fisher]

Ballarat Federation TAFE is now offering a course in cannabis cultivation, for medicinal purposes only, of course.

According to ABC news, from this year the Ballarat technical college will offer a two-year accreditation, which it says will address workforce demand.

Students will learn and be employed while studying, gaining skills in controlled growing and licensed medicinal cannabis operations.

Australia’s medicinal cannabis industry is worth more than $250 million, but Federation TAFE expects the industry to grow by a predicted 40 per cent each year for the next five years.

I don’t know about you, but where I grew up in country Victoria, there might be quite a few people out there who could use their ‘experience’ for good.

My hometown was briefly famous in the 80s for having the largest marijuana plant ever discovered in Australia and even now you can drive around and very run down houses seem to have very sophisticated solar panel systems.

It certainly is a growing industry, and who knows, could become like the poppy cultivation in Tasmania, which currently the world’s largest (legal) producer of alkaloid materials used in the drug industry.

My nana definitely also had opium poppies. She always said if anyone pulled up on it, she’d just say she was an old woman who didn’t know what they were. She was pretty brazen about it, they lined the pathway to her front door.

It seems we are always running short of prescription medicines. Should more be done to develop our local, legal drug industry.

[David Ryder]

Have not been able to post here for two weeks. This is a test to see if the site has been fixed.

[David Ryder]

The site worked. I am not a cannabis user but am glad to see this happening as some people seem to benefit from its use.

[Clelo]

It is a very slow journey to the legalization of Cannabis. I am over 70 and an ex copper so I have been exposed to all sorts of drug abuse over the years. In my estimation the biggest drug problem facing society is methamphetamine followed by the abuse of prescription drugs. Cannabis use is way down the list and is exceeded by alcohol. The two substances that cost this country the most are probably alcohol and to a lesser extent now, nicotine. I cannot understand why the government is letting a revenue boosting industry remain in the cash economy. The only chance of receiving any tax revenue from that is when the funds are spent on other items which attract GST. If it was legalized, like a number of states in the USA, it could be strictly controlled, take it out of the criminal’s hands and boost the country’s coffers immeasurably I also don’t believe legalization would lead to a proliferation of misuse as current trends indicate a migration away from any sort of drug, particularly alcohol and nicotine, in the younger generations. ‘Illegal’ Cannabis use is committed by a huge cross section of society from all walks of life so I suggest the winds of change are gathering strength.

[Corinya Jack]

Big pharma is not going to give in that easy..

[Author]

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