NSW police boss supports fines, health support for personal drug use

The police commissioner has proposed a stronger measure for disciplining drug users as the government considers a three-strikes plan.

Drug users would be spared court and instead cop a fine and get sent to mandatory health and education programs, under a new proposal from Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.

The fine would be in the form of a Criminal infringement Notice — a stronger measure than NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman’s controversial three strikes warning-based plan which is currently dividing the ­Berejiklian government.

Mr Fuller rejects any non-criminal regulation of drugs like ice and warned that a “regulatory expansion” or cannabis-style caution scheme could lead to a “soft decriminalisation”.

Drug use at music festivals has been in the spotlight. Picture: Facebook

The Commissioner has been reluctant to publicly comment on the brutal cabinet stoush over drug reform.

However, in his submission last year to the NSW ice commission he said having a support or educational component tied to Criminal Infringement Notices (CINs) — or fines — for possession could have an “overall effect … on drug use in the community” that “could be profound”.

Mr Speakman’s system involves a drug user receiving an initial warning when first caught with an illicit drug. The user would then be fined if caught a second or third time in the same 12-month period and is only charged with an offence if caught a fourth time.

It is understood that first strike — the warning — will likely be the biggest sticking point when the debate comes to a head in cabinet on Monday. It can be revealed senior ministers, horrified by the notion of such a warning system, have mounted a strong push to tie drug fines and any reduction in penalties to a corresponding requirement for users to dob in a dealer.

Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. Picture: Gaye Gerard / Daily Telegraph

Mr Fuller explicitly does not support the removal of a criminal offence for the use and possession of prohibited drugs.

While Mr Speakman and Premier Gladys Berejiklian have repeatedly insisted the proposal before cabinet is not a “decriminalisation”, opponents in cabinet claim the three-strikes system effectively is just that.

Mr Fuller does support other penalties such as the CINs, as a combination of fines with support services such as education and health linked to them, and advocates explicitly for their use as a mechanism to reduce drug harm.

A CIN trial was introduced at music festivals in 2019, in which 336 fines were issued at 25 events, with 97 per cent of them for MDMA possession.

The trial provides for $400 on-the-spot fines for possession of a prohibited drug — excluding cannabis leaf which is covered under a separate cautioning scheme — and was a recommendation of the expert panel convened by the NSW Premier to advise the government on how to keep people safe at such events. The trial has been extended indefinitely.

“To date, the CINs trial has been an effective harm reduction mechanism. There has been good compliance with those CINs that have been issued, which infers they are being well received by young persons and community,” Mr Fuller’s submission says. “Given this, if CINs are accompanied with an educational and or support component … the overall effect of the scheme on drug use in the community could be profound.”

He said he supported “consideration of a police diversion scheme for use and possession of prohibited drugs for personal use that includes a health/and or education component.

“To this end the NSWP supports the expansion of drug CINs to all types of drugs on the basis that appropriately resourced support services are attached to the issuing of CINs,” he said.

A girl takes a selfie as she is taken away on a stretcher outside the Rolling Loud Festival, Sydney Olympic Park in January 2019. Picture: Damian Shaw

When asked about the cabinet split last week on 2GB, Mr Fuller said he could not comment on the policy, but offered broader opinion.

“We don’t want those type of people out on the streets and we want them in the programs, we need to get them off the ice and get them back on the straight and narrow,” he said.

“And, you know, and I think there needs to be another journey for people other than the justice system. But from a policing perspective, obviously, we’ll be looking forward to seeing the final cabinet decision in relation to this. And at the end of the day, then we have to police the laws given to us by the government.”

The cabinet debate has in turn sparked furious lobbying over the issue of drug penalties and diversion. Uniting head of advocacy Emma Maiden said drug laws needed to be changed.

“The health and justice professionals who deal with people using ice every day agree that tough drug laws are doing more harm than good and need to be changed,” she said.