Many Aboriginal Australians currently live in reserves. Their main source of income is from tourism, selling art etc. They require government funding to maintain their culture and continue living in these reserves. The only alternative is for them to move to urban areas which causes problems as Aboriginals find it hard to integrate and their heratige is threatened.

I the USA Native Americans are allowed to operate gambling establishments on their territory, providing them with a source of income. The same concept could be applied to Australian aboriginals, if not with gambling then with marijuana - a safe drug which generates lots of tourism/money in countries where it's legal like the Netherlands.

What do you think about marijuana being legal in Australian reserves as a means of providing Aboriginal Australians with independence, allowing them to stand on their own feet?

I dont think they want it. The ones still living on the land in tribes just want to be left alone.

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Feb 24^th, 2013 at 4:52am:

I dont think they want it. The ones still living on the land in tribes just want to be left alone. SOB

Few of them live a traditional hunter gatherer lifestyle. Without government money they would be forced to move.

They used to get mellow on Kava, but I think someone in government cancelled this option.

So they went back to grog, sniffing petrol and pressure-pak cans, and chain-smoking.

(Oops! ... or as Homer would say ... "D'Oh!")

If they were allowed to sell weed they would soon fall foul of the bikie gangs who heavily depend upon sale of this for their club revenue.

Maybe they could grow poppies instead ...?  8-)

For the Overseas market?  8-)

Maybe to Afghanistan?  8-)

**********

The Poll: I put NO.

In 20 years time, through the government, the taxpayers of Australia would be sued for billions to compensate for 'health problems', suicides, depression, alcoholism, wife-bashing, child-rape, and god-knows-what-else ... all on the excuse that it was the Dope that Done it.

Pro bono lefty lawyers would be all over the Abo camps like fleas on a junk-yard dog. Big Bucks to be made. A bonanza.

At first I thought a bulldozer might have accidentally flattened the local Centrelink.  8-)

Sacred Site

Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2013 at 9:11pm:

At first I thought a bulldozer might have accidentally flattened the local Centrelink.  8-) Sacred Site

Interesting to equate the sacred with Centrelink - possibly the least "spiritual" place I can think of.

But Gud is great, no? He lives in our every breath. The sacred is in all places.

Just to think, friends. Centrelink is like a mother. She might have government forms in Arabic and Vietnamese, a  big TV with Dr Phil for all to watch, a bored security guard leaning on a wall, and completely bored staff all awaiting retirement or redundancy, but Centrelink feeds so many. She supports many. She gives bread to the poor, and if you are lucky, a few oxycontin pills from the man in the tracksuit out the front.

Centrelink loves us, friends. She gives us social security. And if this is not sacred, what is?