Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says Canberra police should still arrest small-time cannabis users, despite ‘decriminalisation’ laws
LAWS which aimed to decriminalise small amounts of cannabis in the ACT are “terrible”, and police should still charge those caught with the drug, Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says.
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Laws which aimed to decriminalise small amounts of cannabis in the Australian Capital Territory are “terrible”, and local police should still charge those caught with the drug, Attorney-General Christian Porter says.
Mr Porter wrote to his ACT counterpart, Gordon Ramsay, on Sunday warning that possessing even a small quantity of cannabis remained an offence under the Commonwealth Criminal Code.
“I would expect that ACT Policing will continue to enforce ACT and Commonwealth drug laws in accordance with their processes and procedures for investigating suspected breaches of criminal laws,” Mr Porter said.
Mr Porter’s letter follows a vow this week by the ACT Liberals to scrap so-called reforms if they are elected to government next year.
Mr Porter told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning the laws, which come into effect in January 2020, were “terrible for a number of reasons”.
“The ACT laws removed the criminal component at a territory level but didn’t establish anything that is a positive right to possess, which means that there’s no defence to the Commonwealth law that criminalises amounts under 50gm,” Mr Porter said.
“So my advice and the advice that I’ve provided to the ACT Attorney-General is that it is still against the law of the Commonwealth to possess cannabis in the ACT.”
ACT Shadow Attorney-General Jeremy Hanson aired similar criticisms to those of Mr Porter last week, when he told the Canberra Star the laws were “cobbled together” and a “dog’s breakfast”.
The decriminalisation laws were passed late last month after Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson introduced a private members bill to the Legislative Assembly.
Mr Pettersson has repeatedly said the aim of the bill was not to encourage illicit drug use, but to keep small-time users out of the criminal justice system.
“This legislation is not revolutionary, it is a small step towards achieving better health and social outcomes for users by encouraging treatment and support instead of subjecting them to the criminal justice system,” Mr Pettersson said last week.
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