Reason Party leader Fiona Patten pushes to overhaul how Victoria handles illicit drugs

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten wants to end “the War on Drugs” and allow Victorians to grow weed at home under a radical policy shake up.

Victorians could grow weed at home and criminal records for cannabis possession crimes would be wiped as part of a proposed shake-up to the state’s drug laws.

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten will push for controversial legislation to overhaul the way Victoria handles illicit drugs if re-elected to parliament on November 26.

Policies included in the bold agenda would also require every Victorian police officer to carry medication that reverses drug overdoses, while music festivals and major events would have designated pill-testing tents.

Ms Patten said all members of the state’s police force should carry naloxone, a nasal spray that temporarily blocks the action of opioids and reverses overdoses – allowing the affected person to breathe again.

“I know for certain this would save lives and it would be cheaper than an ambulance call-out,” she said.

Fiona Patten wants to to overhaul the way Victoria handles illicit drugs. Picture: David Crosling

Ms Patten has also renewed calls to decriminalise the use and possession of small quantities of all drugs and treat drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal one. She also wants to amend current drug-driving laws to enable medicinal cannabis patients to drive, when safe to do so.

Ms Patten, who recently left hospital after having a kidney removed following a cancer diagnosis, said it made no sense for medicinal cannabis patients to be treated differently to people using other prescription medication known to have similar side effects.

“When I left hospital I was given prescriptions for Oxycodone, a very strong pain medication, and was advised that if I felt drowsy not to drive. But if I were to be prescribed medicinal cannabis I wouldn’t be able to drive regardless of how I felt,” she said. “There’s a stigma around cannabis.”

Under the plan, people would also be allowed to cultivate a “defined number of cannabis plants” in their principal places of residence.

And regulations would allow the establishment of not-for-profit clubs to grow cannabis for people who could not grow it themselves. This would significantly disrupt organised crime in the state while also ensuring there wasn’t a free-for-all commercial cannabis industry, she said.

Under the plan, people would also be allowed to cultivate a “defined number of cannabis plants” in their principal places of residence. Picture: iStock

Ms Patten said the vast majority of Victoria’s drug budget was spent on law enforcement, but argued it should be spent on treatment and education.

“To deny the evidence about drug policy is similarly indefensible as denying climate science,” she said. “The half-century so-called ‘War on Drugs’, based on prohibition, is self-evidently one of the most catastrophic failures in modern political history.

“It has destroyed countless lives, wasted an obscene amount of public funds, and generated a massive black market. Prohibition is being replaced with successful harm-reduction across the world. Change here in Victoria and throughout Australia is inevitable. And overdue.”

As revealed by the Herald Sun in March, Ms Patten introduced a private members Bill in parliament to decriminalise all illicit drugs, but both major parties ruled out supporting it.