One of Australia's most experienced and respected senior police officers has stepped up his campaign to regulate cannabis and believes the drug will be freely and legally available within five years.
Mick Palmer, former head of both the Australian Federal Police and the Northern Territory Police, has joined the board of the Pennington Institute, one of Australia's leading supporters of legalisation.
And it now seems possible that Victoria will be the "beachhead" in a campaign to test a model for making cannabis a regulated, controlled but legal drug.