11th of September 2024, 4:38pm
Legislative Council of Victoria, Melbourne
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):
I rise to make a contribution to motion 527 moved by my colleague Ms Payne. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Ms Pulford and the presence of Ms Patten, a long-serving member of this chamber and also hopefully soon a senator in the federal Parliament. I would also like to thank Mr Galea and Ms Ermacora for their very supportive contributions.
Back in 1971 Richard Nixon commenced his calamitous war on drugs. Over 50 years later I think it is safe to say that the war has been lost. The interminable, ineffective and exorbitant war on drugs is over and – I am sad to break the news – Nixon is dead. Maybe someone should tell those opposite.
Members interjecting.
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):
You did know that – good. As my colleague Ms Payne noted, 80 per cent of respondents to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2022–23 national drug strategy household survey either opposed or strongly opposed the proposition that personal possession be a criminal offence.
That is around 4.5 million Victorians in favour of decriminalisation. Those opposite, I suspect, could only dream of having a policy that enjoyed that level of support. 4.5 million Victorians support an end to the criminalisation of personal use of cannabis, and that is because cannabis use transcends age, ethnicity, level of education, labour force status, socio-economic position, marital status, household composition, sexual orientation or gender experience and postcode.
Cannabis is the most consumed illicit drug in Australia by a wide margin. It is everywhere, and its level of consumption has largely remained consistent for the last 20 years – impermeable to both prohibition and pandemics alike. That is why it is such a good earner for organised crime in Victoria. According to our own Parliamentary Budget Office, illicit cannabis pulls in around $1.25 billion a year in Victoria alone. Nationally the figure is closer to $5 billion. That is an estimated $5 billion a year in cannabis sales pocketed by organised crime.
To put that in some perspective, the illicit cannabis market is worth almost as much as the entire Australian complementary medicines market, which comes in at $5.6 billion and includes vitamins, supplements and other non-prescription medicines. Nationally we spend around $3.5 billion a year on law enforcement and justice in the war on drugs. That is a lot of money. The financial burden on the state – the huge cost of policing, detention and court resources spent on cannabis-related offences – is reason enough to end this insane prohibition.
But it is the human suffering caused by our current drug policies that makes reform so urgent. Every year we expose thousands of Victorians to the very real harms of the justice system for simply possessing and using cannabis – not supplying cannabis, not trafficking cannabis. We know these are generally young people and that they are mainly from marginalised backgrounds.
Anyone paying attention in this place recently would have learned that contact with the criminal justice system can be very harmful indeed, and those harms are felt most profoundly by those from marginalised and lower socio-economic backgrounds.
The most recent data from the Sentencing Advisory Council for 2022–23 shows 5080 people were charged for possession alone. Of those charged, 4156 were sentenced and 10 per cent served actual jail time for personal possession. So to hear suggestions that this is a victimless law, for want of a better term, is rubbish. I remind members that these are consumers of cannabis, not suppliers.
From 2020 to 2023 police charged nearly 14,000 people with simple possession. Over 1500 of those people were jailed and over 80 per cent had a criminal record because of it. A criminal record can have the most devastating effect on a person’s life, affecting employment prospects, education, relationships, parenting and even access to housing and finance. That is why every community legal centre in the state supports the decriminalisation of cannabis.
I might also add that whilst Ms Crozier was keen to quote the AMA’s submission to the inquiry in Canberra, the AMA supports the decriminalisation of cannabis.
I would like to share a case study from the drug outreach program at Fitzroy Legal Service – an outstanding program, offering support to some of the most vulnerable people in the state. It really should get more funding. Peter, which is not his real name:
… is attended by police on a welfare check. He is searched … by police. He is subsequently charged with possession of a small quantity of cannabis.
Peter also:
… has an acquired brain injury, significant mental health challenges, and has had a stroke … has a child and is engaged with AOD services to support access to supervised visits with his child.
Peter was making progress on his journey of rehabilitation. Sadly, however, Peter is not eligible for diversion, because he has priors, and may now have a criminal record for the next 10 years because of that simple possession charge.
As a result of the welfare check and cannabis charge his rehabilitation has been severely damaged and his progress set back for years.
We could prevent so much needless harm by just decriminalising cannabis. We are not talking about regulating a commercial cannabis market here. I will admit I am very excited to see regulated cannabis markets emerging across the globe, but that is not what this motion is about; nor is this a stealthy entree to the creation of a regulated commercial market, as has been suggested; nor is this motion about medicinal cannabis in the workplace; nor is it about medicinal cannabis and driving. It is rather a motion, a very small step, towards the consideration of a legal framework to stop arresting or otherwise legally interfering with thousands of Victorians on an annual basis whose only crime has been to have a bit of cannabis on their person or a couple of plants in their backyard.
The review will give consideration to the adoption and marginal enhancement of the provisions of the ACT decriminalisation legislation that has been in force for four years and has only had beneficial results. Indeed the benefits were confirmed by the recent statutory review of the ACT cannabis act which was tabled last month.
Members may be surprised to learn that far from the anticipated surge in hospital presentations, rampant drug use by young people and unbridled criminal activity, the review found that since decriminalisation in the ACT, rates of cannabis use have largely remained stable. It also found that ACT residents continued to be less likely to have recently used cannabis than the national average. There has been no substantial increase or decrease in cannabis-related presentations to health services. And most importantly, charges for cannabis offences have declined steeply, reducing that nexus with the criminal justice system. In other words, the sky did not fall in and meaningful social reform has been achieved.
We do want to enhance the ACT legislation and address some of the anomalies in the legislation, such as the fact that you can grow a few plants in your backyard but it is still an offence to have a cannabis seed – a sort of interesting philosophical problem as well as a practical one – or the fact that it is legal to grow in your backyard but not to have that plant in a $20 Bunnings frost shelter. These anomalies exist in the ACT legislation; we are keen to see those resolved – and I would point out that those anomalies were recognised in the statutory review.
The bill we are seeking to have reviewed provides for a very simple and basic reform as described by my colleague Ms Payne. We know the government has been considering reform in this area for some time. Indeed in the second-reading debate for our bill Minister Stitt stated that the government wanted ‘to take an approach to implement thoughtful and effective policies that improve the health of and social outcomes for Victorians’, and happily our bill does just that. The bill inquiry would get the advice of experts, as has been discussed, and make recommendations.
We need to do something different. Cannabis consumption is not going to reduce, but we can reduce harm and we can reduce the financial costs. Drug reform is taking place all over the world as jurisdictions accept the futility of the war on drugs and recognise that the spoils of that war are being reaped by organised criminals while the real casualties are their own citizens.
[ENDS]
