New poll: Queenslanders support state’s proposed drug laws

A new poll has revealed how residents across Queensland view proposed laws which will relax drug possession offences.

Queenslanders overwhelmingly support new legislation to relax laws for those caught carrying a small quantity of illicit drugs, according to a new poll.

Ahead of parliament voting on the proposed laws later this week, a survey featuring thousands of residents across 10 electorates from Cairns to Gold Coast showed voters were in favour of the measure.

According to the bill, which is also strongly supported by senior police, users will be given three chances for carrying recreational drugs before facing a criminal charge, including possession of heroin, cocaine or ice.

The legislation, which will enact an expansion of the drug diversionary program, will “focus on a health-based response for … minor drugs offence involving a small quantity of any type of dangerous drug,” according to the bill’s explanatory notes.

Under the current program, the diversionary process only applies to cannabis but, if passed, this will also include ice, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, ketamine and steroids.

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said senior cops strongly supported the new laws. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

The UComms survey, commissioned by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF), showed there is majority support for the health-based response across the state.

The legislation is a positive step to divert people caught with minor drug offences away from the criminal system and towards health intervention programs, Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boulton said.

“We supported this legislation when it was introduced to parliament in February and stood alongside Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll and several former Commissioners to call for these amendments to be passed,” she said.

“These changes should be above politics.”

ADF chief executive Erin Lalor “interactions with the justice system often exceed the harms that may be associated with drug use itself”.

“In addition to the stigma experienced by people who use drugs, which delays or prevents help-seeking, people who become involved in the justice system because of drug use can also experience long term negative impacts on their social, employment, housing, and travel opportunities,” she said.

“For people who do have issues with their drug use, often this has more to do with the other challenges they might be facing. In these situations, our role as a community is to help them with the support they need to be healthy and well.”

When introducing the bill in February, Police Minister Mark Ryan said the expansion of the program was not a relaxation of the “tough enforcement action in taking dangerous drugs off the streets”, but more served as an opportunity to enable officers to target drug manufacturers and traffickers.

“We know that one in six Australians have used an illicit drug in the last 12 months and that a small proportion will develop a substance abuse disorder,” he said.

“Sadly, those that do develop an addiction suffer the unfulfilled potential, poor health outcomes and broken relationships that so often accompany that struggle.

“The expanded police drug diversion program, proposed by the Queensland Police Service and established by this bill, will help to prevent people developing a substance abuse disorder.”

Originally published as New poll: Queenslanders support state’s proposed drug laws