Australia: NSW premier Chris Minns rejects cannabis decriminalisation on day of parliamentary inquiry

The NSW premier has ruled out the decriminalisation of cannabis, despite legal organisations, researchers and peak industry groups telling a parliamentary inquiry doing so for personal use would save money and reduce disproportionate punishments.

The groups backed a change in submissions to a parliamentary inquiry examining the historical development, socio-economic impact and financial cost of cannabis prohibition in NSW that begins today.

However, Premier Chris Minns said he would stand by an election promise not to change the laws around criminalisation.

“We’re not going to break an election commitment,” he said.

The government has been under pressure to overhaul the state’s approach to drugs and it has announced a drug summit for the end of the year.

Many of the 300 submissions to the inquiry highlighted the 2020 recommendations of an $11 million inquiry into the drug ice, which included decriminalising low-level illicit drug use in favour of a health-based approach.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (CCL), whose representatives will be among the inquiry’s witnesses, said there was consistent evidence decriminalisation doesn’t encourage or increase drug taking in the community.

“In fact, decriminalisation may have the opposite effect, as more people are able to access advice, support and treatment for any problematic health issue resulting from drug use,” the CCL’s submission said.

It argued regulation of cannabis would enable the government to maintain oversight of the market and prevent it from being “dominated by large corporations and organised crime groups”.

“The dominant ‘prohibition’ model of legislation in this field has failed in its goal of preventing widespread cannabis use, and consequent or coexisting vulnerabilities, especially amongst young people,” the CCL said.

Arrests for cannabis continue to rise despite de facto decriminalisation

Submissions discussed the potential long-lasting consequences of drug possession charges, including a conviction which follows a person through life.

Material sent to the inquiry from The Drug Policy Modelling Program at UNSW — the country’s leading drug policy research program — said this could impact future employment, education prospects, relationships, ability to secure finance for housing and travel.

NSW currently has de facto decriminalisation in the form of a caution scheme, which allows police to use discretion and issue cautions instead of charges for the personal use of cannabis.

A “small quantity” of cannabis leaf in NSW is considered 30 grams or less.

But the Drug Policy Modelling Program submission said despite this, arrests and prosecutions had continued.

It cited figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showing arrests for cannabis represented nearly half of all arrests for drug use or possession in NSW between 2017 and 2021.

Data also suggests discretionary cautions are unevenly applied by police, with Aboriginal people more likely to be pursued through the courts, the research program said.

A submission from the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) also pointed to this discrepancy, noting “with concern” statistics spanning the last decade of the caution scheme’s operation that suggest “differential treatment” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“We submit that the total criminalisation of cannabis use in NSW has not worked.”