Interesting and scary development.

[JMC]

CITIZENS OF AUSTRALIA

THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS YOUR HELP

LOOK TO YOUR RIGHT, THEN LOOK TO YOUR LEFT

SHOULD YOU SEE A SUSPICIOUS CACTI, OWNER OR
GROWER REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR LOCAL
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY

POSSESSION OF CACTI IS ILLEGAL AND WILL RESULT
IN PROSECUTION AND A CRIMINAL RECORD

MAKE AUSTRALIA A SAFER PLACE

SAY NO TO CACTI


Authorized by Politicians of Australia Demonizing Cacti Growers
and the Kangaroo Court of Western Australia

[Peterthecactusguy]

hahahaha They can try and take my cacti from me in Arizona, but I might throw a chunk of cholla at them, loosen a few pads of Opuntia, chop the arm off a dead saguaro onto them, or get them stuck in the spines of a hooked Mammilaria .. hahahahaa after that they can pry my cacti from my cold dead hands. Paid for by the political action committee "National Cactimen's Association"

[SnowFella]

Great, now they are taking steps to get laws through in NSW aswell, apparently getting voted on this week. And in their infinite wisdom it's worded even more broadly than the WA laws, here it's worded as ANY plant containing a prohibited substance or analogue thereof with no mention of how much it needs to contain.
So in the case of Mescaline there goes well over half of the cactus species in one foul swoop, no difference in the eyes of the law between few common "abuse" plants or the humble Mammillaria and so on.

[SnowFella]

Passed the lower house, I'm now 48 hours away from being a criminal

[majcka]

Passed the lower house, I'm now 48 hours away from being a criminal

So what is your next step? To build up a fence wall and place the armed men on top????

[SnowFella]

Fence is already in place, not many ppl will see my collection other than the taller columnar that can be seen over the fence.
Other than that I'm not doing a single thing! Not about to cull the collection from plants that might contain a trace of mescaline just because some idiots in power all of a sudden deem them illegal! Chances are I'll never have a problem as I don't focus on the few "suspect" species but if I do they will have a hard time explaining the lack of cut stems and abundance of flower photos I keep versus drug intent.

[John C]

I haven't been keeping up with this topic much, but I just read what you said, snowfella. That's insane! Did it become law? What's wrong with governments and politics?! (A lot, I know. There's no need to answer that question for me) Sounds like the U.S. (passing broad, vague laws without adequate knowledge of the subject). A good example:
I'm a snake keeper besides a cactus grower. I keep a couple small, harmless snakes - they make fantastic pets. Once any snake related story makes national news (specifically about any one species) National and/or State and/or Local governments suddenly want to pass laws banning or regulating the ownership of all snakes or whole families of snakes. They don't realize that in the process they criminalize the keeping of some of the most popular, harmless, pet snake species that are owned by thousands and thousands of people. The public is convinced that it is for their own safety, so they blindly go along with it. It's very sad.

Anyhow, back to your situation. So who would make the decision whether a certain plant is illegal or not if it is as vague as you describe? How could someone be prosecuted for breaking the law when law enforcement can't even understand what they are enforcing?

[SnowFella]

It passed alright, though there is naturally some confusion to exactly what it means

Think the passage that most have me worried is this bit.

A person who has in his or her possession a Schedule 9 substance (not being a
prohibited drug within the meaning of this Act) is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both

In conjunction with their change of the definition of "substance" to include plants, fungi and natural organisms.

Schedule 9 is a huge long list of different chemicals that are banned, among them is Mescaline....and mind you also a lot of substances that naturally occur in native Australian plants, from memory they have now effectively outlawed Golden Wattle as it contains both alkaloids and tryptamines....mind you the plant is only on Australia's coat of arms

Mind you it goes downhill fast from there when you start looking into it, if "substance" includes natural organism then the muppets have even outlawed themselves as among others tryptamines occur naturally in the brain of mammals

[John C]

Wow! What a mess! That's all craziness!

[majcka]

I think we will all need a certain law against "Crazy politicians". I wonder when will that be??????

[John C]

I think we will all need a certain law against "Crazy politicians". I wonder when will that be??????

Sounds like a good idea to me!

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Complete Madness I tell ya ! !

.

Dont you get Alkaloids in Potatoes that wer'nt covered up and the tubers exposed to the sun.

Does that mean you cant grow spuds in the slightly cooler climbs in Oz ?