Scipione: It could be time for drug depenalisation
Former police commissioner Andrew Scipione has suggested a “depenalisation model” for personal drug use, telling a debate about the legalisation of the drug ice that “things have to change.”
NSW
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NSW’s former top cop Andrew Scipione has said it may be time to rethink tough penalties for ice users during a debate on the ongoing drug crisis.
Former police commissioner Scipione told a debate about the legalisation of methylamphetamine that a “depenalisation model” for personal use could be considered given the failures of the current system.
“Things have to change because necessarily what’s happening at the moment isn’t working,” Mr Scipione, who spent 37 years in the police force, told a roundtable discussion being held as part of the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug ‘Ice’.
“I think the environment’s right, the time’s right, prevailing conditions are right to look at how we might best go forward from this point.”
He stopped short of supporting wholesale decriminalisation of ice but said it could be time for ‘depenalisation’, similar to the cannabis caution scheme, where using the drug remained an offence but those caught could be dealt with without a criminal prosecution. “We can’t discount we are part of a global response and so the notion that to decriminalise … may be entirely problematic. Do we need to look at a depenalisation model?”
He said any drug reforms treating the issue as a health concern had to be met with greater rehabilitation resources. He used the example of trying to get his friend’s ice-addicted son into treatment.
“He ended up selling his father’s business assets without his father even knowing.
“My compassion levels went through the roof ... we were trying, through his father, to get him into an appropriate facility, to get him help.
“I couldn’t get it. I’m the commissioner of police. What does that say for others? There was just no room.”