<P> Like many developed nations Australia first responded to the issue of cannabis use in the 1920s, acting as a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention on Opium and Other Drugs that saw the use of cannabis restricted for medicinal and scientific purposes only . Cannabis was grouped with morphine, cocaine and heroin, despite cannabis' rare use as a medicine or remedy in Australia at the time . </P> <P> This prohibition model was applied with little research into cannabis use in Australia . Most drug - related laws enacted by jurisdictions of Australia during this time were related to opium but, as a result of pressure from the United Kingdom, Australia began implementing local laws consistent with the Geneva Convention . According to McDonald and others, in 1928 the state of Victoria enacted legislation that prohibited the use of cannabis; other states followed suit slowly over the next three decades . </P> <P> As in other Western countries, cannabis use was perceived as a significant social problem in Australia; new drug control laws were enacted at the state and federal level, and penalties for drug offences were increased . In 1938, cannabis was outlawed in Australia as a result of a Reefer Madness - style shock campaign; the newspaper Smith's Weekly carried a headline reading "New Drug that Maddens Victims". This campaign introduced the word "marijuana" to Australia, describing it both as "an evil sex drug that causes its victims to behave like raving sex maniacs" and "the dreaded sex drug marijuana". The campaign was only moderately successful; it failed to instill the generation with false negative effects of the drug and its impact on society, it did not stop an increase in demand and usage . </P> <P> The 1960s saw an increase in the use of cannabis, heroin and LSD as part of political and social opposition to the Vietnam War, and this resulted in most Australian states gradually moving to a prohibitionist and criminal - justice orientation . Right - wing Australian politicians like Queensland premier Joh Bjelke - Petersen and NSW premier Robert Askin supported Nixon's War on Drugs in America, calling for a crackdown on Australian youth culture . Following the fall of the Whitlam government in 1975, these politicians launched a Nixon - style war on drugs in Australia . </P>

How long has weed been illegal in australia
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