Push to decriminalise ice use as bar backs public health approach

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Push to decriminalise ice use as bar backs public health approach

By Michaela Whitbourn

The personal use and possession of ice and other illicit drugs would be decriminalised in NSW under a public health-driven plan backed by the Bar Association and other top lawyers.

In a submission to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug Ice, which began public hearings across the state last month, the association says that criminalising personal drug use "may result in greater harm to the individual, and to society more broadly", than the harm caused by the use of illicit drugs.

There is a push within the legal fraternity to decriminalise the personal use and possession of the drug ice.

There is a push within the legal fraternity to decriminalise the personal use and possession of the drug ice.Credit: NSW Police

"Decriminalisation of personal acquisition, possession and use of illicit drugs would allow the implementation of a comprehensive public health approach," the association's president, Tim Game, SC, said.

Under the Bar Association's plan, the production, trafficking and supply of illicit drugs including ice and other amphetamine-type stimulants would continue to be criminalised.

A new, non-criminal regime would be introduced to deal with personal drug use, which would allow tribunals staffed by lawyers and other experts including social workers and psychologists to make a range of orders including requiring users to engage in treatment and rehabilitation. Non-criminal sanctions would result from a failure to comply.

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The model draws on the approach taken in Portugal, where personal drug use was decriminalised in 2001.

"It is expected that the cost of establishing and maintaining such tribunals would be offset by savings from other sectors such as police, courts and corrections, resulting from decriminalising personal use offences," Mr Game said.

In a separate submission, the Public Defenders Office said "consideration should be given to whether, particularly for offences of simple possession, the interests of the public ... would be better served by a significant focus on harm minimisation, treatment and rehabilitation and by focusing law enforcement and justice resources on serious trafficking offences and community safety offences such as drug-driving".

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The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions called for an expansion of the successful NSW Drug Court,  a specialist court operating in parts of Sydney and the Hunter that takes referrals from some Local and District courts and tackles the issues underpinning drug dependency with tailored treatment and diversionary programs.

While people in remote and very remote areas are 2.5 times as likely to use meth and amphetamines as those in major cities, the DPP noted that "many persons living in urban areas and almost all persons living in rural and regional areas of NSW are excluded" from the court's geographical reach.

Roger Dive, senior Judge of the Drug Court, said in a submission that "no other justice program has been proven to be effective in reducing recidivism - and all at a lower cost than incarceration".

He said an expansion of the reach of the court was a "rather obvious need" and "at the moment many residents in Sydney can be excluded from a Drug Court opportunity, and will therefore go to jail on a full-time basis, because they live on the wrong side of the street".

Legal Aid NSW said there was a "need for a cultural shift, greater community awareness and systemic decriminalisation so that drug usage can be addressed as a health issue rather than with the blunt instrument of the criminal justice system".

In a detailed submission, it said "the intervention of the criminal law is a significant barrier to access to treatment for many people".

"Defendants seeking treatment are frequently placed on unrealistic bail conditions to completely abstain from drug use, and being detected in possession or under the influence of drugs leads to frequent arrests and incarceration, which interrupts treatment."

The commission of inquiry will report to the Governor by October 28.

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