NSW Crimes Commissioner warns Australians there is no way to take illicit drugs ethically

Residents in a “beautiful” suburb have been called out by NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes for their consumption of drugs.

Australians have been warned there is no way to take illicit drugs ethically and even people in well-heeled suburbs who do so recreationally are participating in a toxic supply chain rife with exploitation.

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes on Thursday said there was no such thing as “free trade cocaine” as he called for improved public messaging around the realities of how drugs were made and shipped to Australia.

Mr Barnes, who heads up the body that investigates serious or organised crime in NSW, said law enforcement agencies would not be able to fully tackle the supply of illicit drugs or the criminal networks behind their importation as long as demand remained strong.

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes has called for greater public awareness campaigning around the ethics of drug-taking.

Speaking in Sydney at a hearing of a federal parliamentary inquiry into the issue, Mr Barnes said the recreational use of drugs had become normalised among different socio-economic groups despite the ethical issues involved in their consumption.

“The beautiful people in Double Bay, Carlton (and) New Farm need to be made more acutely aware that when they buy cocaine and post Snapchat pictures of themselves and their glamorous friends using they are participating in this vile web,” he said.

“The tradies and their mates in the less affluent suburbs that consume tonnes of methylamphetamine each year need to focus on how many people are harmed by the criminal network they support and provide custom to.”

Double Bay (pictured) was one of the suburbs named by Mr Barnes. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Mr Barnes said police seized 38.5 tonnes of illicit drugs in 2019-2020 across the country before they could be sold but Australians still spent about $10.3bn on illicit drugs in 2020-2021.

He raised concerns that “pop stars, professional sportspeople and even members of the royal family” appeared to endorse illicit drug use in a way that normalised it.

“They’re rightly concerned to ensure that the supply lines of their coffee and chocolate (and) their linen resort wear doesn’t involve child slavery,” he said.

“Well, I can assure them there’s no free trade cocaine.”

Mr Barnes said police seized 38.5 tonnes of illicit drugs in 2019-2020.

The inquiry on Thursday also heard from a range of representatives from drug and alcohol, mental health and medical research centres who suggested decriminalising drug possession as a way to minimise harm.

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s Rachel Sutherland told the inquiry hospitalisations and deaths related to drug-taking had been increasing over the past decade.

“These harms have been increasing under the current prohibitionist framework so it’s clear that we need to change how we respond to drug use,” Dr Sutherland said.

Appearing at the same hearing, Drug Free Australia research director Gary Christian called for a tougher policing strategy and claimed decriminalisation would do nothing except increase drug use.

“Australians do not want more drug use in their society, which harm reduction decriminalisation and legalisation always — and I say always — inevitably brings,” he claimed.

The inquiry continues.

Originally published as NSW Crimes Commissioner warns Australians there is no way to take illicit drugs ethically