‘Scrap penalties for drug use’
The New Zealand Drug Foundation is proposing the Government legislate to remove criminal penalties for the possession, use and social supply of all drugs - not just cannabis.
It announced its model policy at its parliamentary symposium, and also called for a strictly regulated cannabis market and more resources into prevention, education and treatment.
Current laws were making criminals out of people when harmful drug use needed to be treated as a health issue, said policy author Kali Mercier.
Under the Drug Foundation’s policy, the commercial supply and trafficking of drugs would still be punished, but people who were caught with drugs for their own use would not face criminal penalties.
It was similar to the Portugal model, which the foundation said had produced early positive evidence of reduced drug use, fewer offenders in prison, fewer court cases and a reduction in HIV infections and overdoses.
The foundation laid out the process in a policy document. If police found a person in possession of drugs they would be given a ‘‘mandatory caution’’ and health information and legal advice.
‘‘After one, two or three cautions (depending on the drug), the person would be required to attend a brief intervention session run by a community alcohol and drug treatment service.’’
Any legal penalty for not attending the session would be restricted to an option to reschedule or a low fine.
Earlier in the conference, delegates heard of the Canadian example, as that country moved to legalisation by July next year.
Without relentless and ‘‘aggressive’’ public education programmes, any mistakes made in the legalisation of cannabis will be ‘‘horrendous’’.
But that did not mean the status quo should remain, said Anne McLellan - Chair of a Canadian Government taskforce to advise on the regulation of the drug. New Zealand was arguably inching closer to the liberalisation of cannabis use, and a Green Party bill was awaiting to be debated by Parliament that would further ease access to medicinal cannabis products for certain patients.
‘‘Public education is going to be key here absolutely key. ‘‘You don’t wait for legalisation, how crazy would that be?’’
Similarly to New Zealand, cannabis was the most-used illicit substance in Canada and outpaced tobacco use in younger cohorts. That was partly due to heavy restrictions in marketing and advertising for tobacco, ‘‘and aggressive public education’’, which had seen its use drastically reduced in recent years.
Canada was also looking at measures like plain packaging to deter people from being enticed to take up a cannabis habit.
Heavy usage and usage from an early age was known to have harmful and permanent effects on developing brains, which medical research suggested was up to 24 years of age.