Victorian government open to discussing decriminalising cannabis use

The Victorian government has announced it is open to a discussion about decriminalising personal use of cannabis, signalling the potential for significant drug reform despite voting down a bill from crossbench MPs to do so.

Labor on Wednesday agreed to further discussions with Legalise Cannabis MPs in response to the minor party’s bill to allow adults to possess small quantities of the drug for personal use and grow up to six plants.

Victorian Legalise Cannabis MPs David Ettershank and Rachel Payne.Credit: Joe Armao

Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt told the parliament Labor saw benefits in the proposal but that there were risks too. She said Labor would be unable to support the bill to legalise personal use of cannabis at this stage but left the door open to reform.

“In relation to this bill that proposes to legalise the adult personal use of cannabis beyond that required for medicinal reasons, we are unable to support it in its current form at this time,” Stitt said.

“However, the government is amenable to ongoing discussions with the Legalise Cannabis Victoria party on this topic and a process that will take the advice of experts and engage with the community. And I’m looking forward to continuing those important discussions.”

The Age has asked the government to clarify what form that discussion with experts and the community would take. Under former premier Daniel Andrews, Labor opposed any changes to drug laws involving cannabis.

Adults could legally possess small quantities for personal use and grow up to six plants under the Legalise Cannabis proposal, the first of three bills the party has planned for a staged approach towards full regulation of the market.

Cannabis could be given as a gift but not sold under the initial plan, and a carer would be permitted to grow crops on behalf of others. Driving while impaired, supplying to children and smoking the drug in public would remain crimes.

Premier Jacinta Allan earlier said that while her government would continue discussions with Legalise Cannabis, she had no announcements to make about the party’s bill.

“We have no plans to make change to our current arrangements,” Allan said.

Rachel Payne, an MP from Legalise Cannabis, said it was time to have a health-led response to cannabis use.

“I want the Victorian premier to be brave in her response to this bill and put an end to the injustices faced by the tens of thousands of adults who consume cannabis in this state,” Payne said.

Fellow crossbencher David Limbrick, from the Libertarians, said the Legalise Cannabis plan was more moderate than he would have liked.

David Ettershank, from Legalise Cannabis, said the proposal was modest and commonsense.

“We have this bizarre situation in Victoria, where there is an illicit market worth at least $1.2 billion dollars a year, based on about 85 tonnes of cannabis per annum being consumed, all of which is illicit, all of which is criminal – why?” Etterhsank said, based on analysis by the state’s Parliamentary Budget Officer at the request of the party.

“[Let’s] get rid of this antiquated 95-year-old prohibition. The time for change is now.”

Sione Crawford, the chief executive of Harm Reduction Victoria, said it could actually improve the likelihood of someone seeking help for cannabis use by reducing the stigma.

A Pennington Institute report found 37 per cent of people over 14 have used the drug at some point, and a 2019 survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found more people support legalisation than not.

The recreational use of cannabis is illegal in most of Australia, although minor offences have been decriminalised and replaced with fines in South Australia, the ACT and Northern Territory.

In 2020, the ACT went further and allowed adults to grow up to two plants and possess small amounts of cannabis without penalty.

A two-year parliamentary inquiry in Victoria, spearheaded by influential former Reason Party MP Fiona Patten, in 2021 recommended the government “investigate the impacts of legalising cannabis for adult personal use”. It was set to recommend legalisation but was watered down by Labor MPs.

The Legalise Cannabis party argues the state wasted money enforcing the law and could invest in health and education instead, while raising revenue by taxing the drug if it was sold in a legal regulated market.

“We literally spent hundreds of millions of dollars a year prosecuting and incarcerating people whose only crime has been personal use,” Ettershank said.

Greg Barns SC, criminal justice spokesman for the Australian Lawyers’ Alliance, agreed prohibition was a “scandalous” waste of resources and said criminalisation had been a “monumental failure”.

The Federation of Community Legal Centres also supported a health-based response to cannabis use, to stop the over-policing of First Nations people in particular.

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