Softer drugs push in ACT ‘ignored’ police concerns

The ACT government has been accused of ‘practically ignoring’ calls from police to stage the decriminalisation of drugs in the territory.

ACT Liberal MP Jeremy Hanson speaks out against move to decriminalise possession of hard drugs. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

The ACT government “ignored” calls from police for a staged introduction of softer drug laws beginning with the decriminalisation of MDMA rather than half a dozen substances at once.

In a submission to the government before it passed legislation making Canberra the nation’s first city to decriminalise illicit drugs in small quantities, ACT Policing urged a slower approach be taken and for a delay in decriminalising “harder drugs” such as ice. “ACT Policing would prefer a staged ­approach to the decriminalisation of the listed substances, with a first phase potentially including cannabis (as per current laws) and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy),” the 2021 submission stated.

“Police also see first-hand the connections between substances such as methylamphetamine (ice) with the cycles of crime, including violent and organised crime.

“ACT Policing is of the view that decriminalising these harder drugs requires a staged approach to ensure that the needs of each specific demographic of drug user are responded to appropriately within the ACT.”

It also raised concern about the “tension” that could be created for police “between their obligation to implement ACT government policy and to have regard for the commonwealth criminal law”.

Despite the calls to slowly stage the policy, the ACT in October 2022 passed legislation that within 12 months would decriminalise the possession of 1.5g or less of amphetamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and magic mushrooms and 1g or less of ­heroin. The possession of 0.001g or less of LSD would also be decriminalised after the 12-month “transition period”.

When asked if the ACT police still harboured the concerns raised in its 2021 submission, a spokesman said: “It is important that any decriminalisation efforts do not inadvertently make it easier for drug traffickers, growers or manufacturers. ACT Policing will implement a plan to prepare our workforce to support the government’s priority of harm reduction and to free the courts of minor drug possession offences.”

ACT opposition police spokesman Jeremy Hanson said the way the Labor-Greens Coalition had implemented its policy lacked transparency and due process.

“Those submissions (from the police) were practically ignored,” he said. “You can see the way the government stitched this together, they had a plan from day one.”

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith earlier this month ­revealed her government went to the election “quietly” with its ­desire to decriminalise drugs and chose to pursue the policy through a private member’s bill so as not to face the onerous “risk aversion and complexity” that would have come with putting it up as government legislation. But she later clarified that she had not wished to “scream from the rooftops” the ­intention to decriminalise some drugs because of the stigma this would have created for vulnerable drug users in the territory.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the ACT government had consulted rigorously with the public, who made clear “the preferred ­approaches to minor drug possession offences (was) diversion to drug education, treatment and small fines, not prison”.

“The government’s amend­ments … were based on detailed policy work in close consultation with ACT Policing, health service providers and experts, as well as the extensive evidence heard during the Select Committee process,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

“Excluding methamphetamine and heroin from the list of drugs would have a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people in lower socio-economic groups,” she added.