Time for a new tack on drug abuse

Rosalie Woodruff says everyone knows the current drug laws have failed and it is well past time for a rethink

PEOPLE have used drugs for millennia, and nothing shows they’ll be stopping anytime soon.

Prohibition has never been an effective method to prevent illicit drug use.

It has been said time and time again, we can’t arrest our way out of the drug problem.

I am a doctor of epidemiology and have a masters in public health. I have 30 years engagement with the community health sector including educating in workplaces, prisons and with drug users about how to reduce the harm of illicit drugs.

This week the Tasmanian Community Legal Centres released their report into drug treatment and law reform.

It was launched by longtime drug law reform advocate Dr Alex Wodak and former chief magistrate Michael Hill. Both men spoke strongly for the need to change what we’re doing and the benefits of a health-based response to drugs.

Dr Wodak and Mr Hill have worked at the coal face for decades — in a health and judicial role respectively. They joined the Tasmanian CLCs in calling for decriminalisation of personal drug use, along with investment in prevention, early intervention, education and treatment.

They presented comprehensive evidence that a health-focused response would reduce violent crimes, drug-related deaths and disease, and costs to the hospital and prison system in Tasmania.

It’s clear we need to rethink our approach to drugs. It would be irresponsible to ignore the compelling evidence from Australia and other countries.

The “war on drugs” has been an epic failure by all its own measures. It has failed to cut the supply or demand for drugs, and has criminalised large numbers of nonviolent offenders just for their personal drug use.

The decriminalisation of drugs for personal use is tried and tested policy in many regions around the world, including in the US where the ‘war on drugs’ began.

Portugal’s laws go further. Now in their 16th year, they are a living example of the benefits of taking a health approach, rather than a law enforcement one.

Since Portugal decriminalised drugs for personal use, the rate of drug using in young people and hard drug users has dropped.

As an island state, we are not immune. Like the rest of the world, Tasmania sees more drugs being imported, manufactured, supplied and used than ever before.

Despite the efforts of police, criminal gangs proliferate.

Successive governments have failed to put enough money into educating people about the harms of illicit drug use or into recovery from addiction.

Instead, they have prioritised resources into criminalising them. The impact on young people, particularly, has been acute.

Our state’s current enforcement approach is creating social misery and harm for individuals, their families and ultimately all Tasmanians.

Last year, 80 per cent of Tasmania’s 1100 arrests for drug-related offences were for personal use. That’s nearly 900 Tasmanians needlessly criminalised.

Criminalising people for personal use of illicit drugs is costing the community, feeding a black market economy, and driving up violence and property crime.

Tasmania needs to listen to the experts — retired judges, magistrates, police commissioners, health experts and ex-premiers — and reorient resources towards preventing addiction. We need to intervene early, educate, fund more drug treatment programs and court mandated diversions, and decriminalise the personal use of drugs.

The status quo doesn’t reduce levels of drug use, prevent harm to individual users, or keep the community safer from violence and property crime.

The focus of law enforcement should be on criminals trafficking or manufacturing drugs, not on users.

It’s time law-makers and policy-setters caught up. Neither Labor nor the Liberals have responded to the Community Legal Centres’ report into drug treatment and law reform, or to the polite challenge of former chief

magistrate, Michael Hill, to consider the report’s recommendation.

The Liberals dismissed the Community Legal Centres’ report before it had even been released, more concerned with maintaining a political “tough on drugs” line than looking after the health of Tasmanians.

The Labor Party, who claim to put people and health at the fore, dodged and weaved, refusing to commit to a policy stance for days.

They finally confirmed they wouldn’t back drug law reforms.

Labor and the Liberals are on the wrong side of history. They’ve ignored the experts and the evidence.

The CLCs report confirms the approach to managing illicit drugs is leading to more drugs being manufactured, supplied, cultivated and used.

Instead of politicking, Tasmanians need all political parties to tackle this critical community health issue with the care and awareness it demands.

We have to open our eyes to the failure of our current illicit drug approach, the damaging and pointless harm it’s causing, and sign up to what works.

By not doing this, Labor and the Liberals are putting Tasmanians’ health and security at risk.

Dr Rosalie Woodruff is health spokeswoman for the Tasmanian Greens.