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Australians are not averse to marijuana consumption. It is estimated that about a third of the Australian population has tried marijuana at least once in their lives, and that just under 10% of the Australian population have used marijuana in the last year.

In spite of these numbers, very few active pro-cannabis organizations exist in Australia. Those that do exist are often inextricably linked to the public perception of marijuana as a subset of a specific, drug-centered lifestyle that fetishizes marijuana and its associated historical tropes. Whilst we recognize and fully support the right of people to be a part of this culture, we feel that this perception greatly reduces the chance of cannabis legalization ever being taken seriously. This is certainly unfair, but it is also a statement of fact. The debate about cannabis legalization cannot be won with facts and good intentions alone. The medium is the message.

Cannabis advocacy in the USA is a case in point. There are many prominent cannabis legalization associations that have been instrumental in the promotion and passing of medical marijuana laws in thirteen states. Recent polls have suggested that over half the population of California favours the legalization, taxation and regulation of marijuana. Spokespeople from these advocacy groups regularly appear on television, calmly and rationally making their case, further severing the link between cannabis and its outdated stereotypes.

On These Ramparts is an attempt to replicate this style of cannabis advocacy in Australia. It is an attempt to bring people out of what the prominent conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan has called the “cannabis closet”, in the belief that if enough people are willing to storm the ramparts of received opinion, it may actually be possible for cannabis legalization to be implemented.

Such talk might have seemed fanciful only a few years ago, but 2009 has been a stellar year for cannabis advocacy in the US. The Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has openly called for a debate about marijuana legalization. The last three US presidents have all admitted to using marijuana. Cannabis legalization receives bipartisan support from both conservative and liberal intellectuals and economists. There is no reason why such success can’t be replicated in Australia.

At On These Ramparts, we believe that enough is enough. We’re sick and tired of marijuana consumers being stereotyped as idiots, hippies, degenerates and worse. Sick and tired of the creeping nanny state insisting upon what is and isn’t good for you. Sick and tired of neo-prohibitionists continuously shifting the goalposts with regards to the criminalization of marijuana. Sick and tired of the misreadings and outright junk science promoted by a hysterical media. It’s time to storm the ramparts.