TASMANIANS should tell their politicians they don’t want debate over drug policy to turn into an ugly and destructive law and order election.
Tasmania is a remarkably stable, successful and safe place to live. Whatever their party affiliation, Tasmania’s politicians should be sceptical about any proposal to retreat from harm minimisation and should think carefully before they sign up to the worrying trend towards US-style zero tolerance approach to cannabis.
The US approach imposes ever higher criminal penalties for cannabis use. It treats as a serious crime conduct that lots of young people — and many of my generation now in important positions throughout society —did, or still do, regard as socially acceptable.
That means the law is only enforced at the edges — an ugly lottery that leads to prison for the unlucky few while the law turns a blind eye to the doings of the socially well connected. That is why US gaols are full of the disadvantaged black poor.
Cannabis is still very low on the scale of harms
Any concern about a link between cannabis use and mental illness — and the national government’s own highest drug advisory body has carefully observed that the jury is still out on that proposition — should not be answered with tougher penalties for cannabis possession.
The slide towards higher penalties and the use of the criminal law as a ‘one size fits all’ solution is inconsistent with a harm minimisation approach, which recognises that people get involved in drugs for a variety of reasons. Even if there is a link to some higher risk to mental health, cannabis is still very low on the scale of health and social harms compared to tobacco and alcohol. These remain legally available — and we know that prohibition and criminal sanctions for these drugs would be unacceptable.
Australia has a sophisticated range of strategies for dealing with the harms caused by tobacco. Why not adopt a broadly similar model for cannabis? A combination of legal and social disapproval, economic sanctions and appropriate healthcare would be a far more sensible beginning than simply introducing yet more criminal sanctions. Health issues, including mental health, require appropriate medical and social responses, not simply tougher criminal sanctions.
Asking the police to enforce widely ignored laws in a framework of ‘zero tolerance’ simply increases the risk of corruption of law enforcement.
Duncan Kerr SC is Labor MHR for Denison.
