Labor ministers are considering a push from their backbench to legalise cannabis for personal use in Canberra, as the police union and the Opposition say relaxing drug laws could put more pressure on the force.
ACT Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson will introduce a private members bill on Wednesday that would effectively legalise cannabis for personal use, by removing possession under 50g for an adult as an offence.
It would also allow you to have four legal cannabis plants.
Mr Pettersson said about 60 per cent of drug arrests in the ACT are for cannabis consumers, which was a waste of police resources.
Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris would not rule out supporting the bill.
"As minister for health and wellbeing I have some questions about the legislation, and the ACT government will make our position clear once the bill has been brought forward on Wednesday," Ms Fitzharris said.
Police Minister Mick Gentleman also said he would outline his position on Wednesday, although would not rule out support.
Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said his party backed legalising cannabis in principle.
“The Australian Greens have also proposed legalisation for recreational cannabis use at a national level," Mr Rattenbury said.
Mr Rattenbury said he was also keen to substantially improve the ACT's medical cannabis system, which is "more difficult to access than it should be".
However, the police union has grave reservations about the legislation.
Australian Federal Police Association president Angela Smith said the bill would not present a "huge change" from what police were already doing.
"The biggest and most concerning issue with legalising up to 50g of cannabis is that it allows an increased number of drug-affected drivers to be on the road," Ms Smith said.
"Cannabis negatively affects your ability to drive. You become impaired. The ACT community should be horrified what this will mean to them. More drug-affected drivers on the road while parents are driving their kids to school."
Ms Smith said this would mean much more work for ACT Policing, who were already "stretched to breaking point".
"When we can’t get to the increased number of drug-affected drivers and an innocent member of the Canberra community is killed, Canberrans should ask why was this bill allowed to go through," Ms Smith said.
Canberra Liberals legal affairs spokesman Jeremy Hanson said if the Barr government wanted to free up police resources, it should introduce anti-consorting laws not legalise cannabis.
"The problem for lack of police resources is not about use of marijuana, it’s about not enough police on our street and a bikie war that’s raging in a city that’s tying up resources," Mr Hanson said.
"The police have got to strike the right balance and at this stage, I think they’re doing that appropriately."
However, Mr Hanson said he would be open to exploring different penalties or deterrents, in line with the Australian Medical Association's position statement on cannabis, which supports diversions into treatment or counselling and education.
"We want to make it clear to young people there is a consequence for taking any form of illicit substance," Mr Hanson said.
"At this stage, there are penalties associated with that and we support those but we’re open to looking at ways that can be done differently but the way that’s been presented by Mr Pettersson is not the way to go."
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s annual Illicit Drug Data Report released on Monday showed cannabis arrests in Canberra fell by 8.7 per cent to 304 in 2016-17.
The number of Simple Cannabis Offence Notices also fell 13.7 per cent to 82.
In the same period, the number of cannabis seizures rose by 3.5 per cent to 765, although the total weight seized fell by 38.7 per cent to 177,106 grams.