Decriminalisation Discussion Paper Possession and Use of Drugs: Options for Changing the Law
Uniting’s Discussion Paper delves into options for changing the law around personal drug possession and use. It outlines the evidence for taking a primary health and wellbeing-based response to personal possession of currently illicit drugs. It is the diversion of people who use drugs from the court system for the simple act of possession. This approach is known as “decriminalisation“.
It was a collaborative effort between Uniting’s Emma Maiden and Dr Tom McClean and Fair Treatment partners Prof. Alison Ritter of UNSW’s Drug Policy Modelling Program, Will Tregoning, CEO of Unharm, and Dr Marianne Jauncey, Medical Director of MSIC. They formed a working group to explore preferred decriminalisation models.
Prof. Allison Ritter, unpacked the detail of the discussion paper. She said removing criminal penalties for personal use of drugs is smart policy, grounded in evidence.
“The community overwhelmingly supports it. We know that problems arise from current laws,” Prof. Ritter said.
“When Uniting and myself and colleagues set about to develop the set of options for removing criminal penalties we worked with a set of principles. Those principles included equity, fairness, proportionality, transparency, cost-effectiveness good use of public money and respecting the dignity and worth of each person.”
Key takeaways
- The paper says people who use drugs are among the most stigmatised members of our society, and there is a desperate need for laws to change.
- It acknowledges an alignment with a comprehensive decriminalisation model, that applies to all drugs, does not apply civil sanctions, and abolishes threshold quantities. These outlined reforms have already been tried and tested in other countries.
- This is because civil sanctions, such as fines and community service notices, can exacerbate underlying disadvantage of which drug dependency is often a symptom.
- It recommends a staged approach to remove a fundamental feature of Australian drug law – threshold quantities. These quantities use the weight of the drug to distinguish drug use/possession and supply and are a somewhat arbitrary measure. The paper refers to countries like Spain, Denmark and Uruguay which do not use threshold quantities. Instead, these countries rely on other evidence, including processing paraphernalia, or evidence of large transactions, to establish supply.
Purpose
The paper’s forward features Uniting NSW.ACT Executive Director Tracey Burton and Uniting Church NSW.ACT Moderator Rev. Simon Hansford. They explained that the paper was deliberately written to increase our understanding of a complex topic and encourage conversation.
“Many issues we face today involve complex ethical dilemmas without simple answers,” they write.
“We are guided by our Christian faith and the way Jesus astonished people with his grace, acceptance, and forgiveness, before he ever offered a word of judgment.”
“We observe that sometimes we must have the courage to take risks and break conventions, as Jesus did.”
In 2016, the Uniting Church Synod of NSW/ACT formally resolved to support the decriminalisation of personal possession of small amounts of prohibited drugs and greater investment in drug and alcohol treatment. It was because of this that the Fair Treatment campaign was created in 2018.
