Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Criminal Code and Other Legislation Amendment (Removing Commonwealth Restrictions on Cannabis) Bill 2018. The Greens will support this bill to remove restrictions on cannabis. However, we need to go much further than simply removing those restrictions; we need to have a very detailed plan for how we would legalise cannabis in this country, so that it is more than simply a thought bubble. The reason the Greens support removing criminal restrictions on the use of cannabis is that the war on drugs is a war on people. The current approach to the prohibition of cannabis causes a great deal more harm than it prevents. The approach to illicit drug use in this country has been an unmitigated disaster, and it is about time our political leaders had some courage and recognised that we need to start treating the issue of drug use as a health issue, not as a law-and-order issue. We need to reform our laws and introduce the right regulatory framework to make that vision a reality.

The good news is that governments right around the world are realising that cannabis laws cause much more harm than they're intended to prevent. We've seen huge changes right across the globe, whether it be in the US, Canada or some South American states. New Zealand are about to embark on a referendum on this very issue. The winds of change are sweeping right across the world, and Australia is being left behind. Instead, in this country the government continues to arrest its citizens at an alarming rate for using cannabis. Nearly seven million Australians, well over a third of Australians, have used cannabis at some point in their life. It's something that's being used widely. The greatest proportion of illicit drug arrests across Australia occur because of something that many Australians are doing, some on a daily basis, some occasionally. Illicit drug arrests across Australia have risen from six per cent in 2014, 75,000 people arrested, to nearly 80,000 people arrested the following year.

The stats demonstrate that, despite those arrests, more people are continuing to use it. Despite the current illegality of cannabis, Australians have decided that those laws do not relate to them. Those laws force many decent, law-abiding Australians to buy potentially contaminated cannabis of unknown quality and strength, from drug dealers whose only interest is in people continuing to use that product and, potentially, being redirected into using more harmful illicit substances. We had some debate on the harms associated with cannabis. There is no question: cannabis has potential harms associated with its use. It's a drug like many other drugs, be they legal or illegal, and therefore has a range of effects on human physiology. There is no question about it. We know that the young developing brain should not be exposed to cannabis, in the same way as it shouldn't be exposed to alcohol.

One of the greatest harms associated with cannabis is the way it is consumed. Smoking cannabis is bad for you. Smoking cigarettes—indeed, smoking anything—is bad for people's respiratory physiology. Some people become dependent on cannabis, no question; there is a dependence syndrome associated with cannabis. Cannabis is not a harmless drug; neither is paracetamol. The more interesting question is how harmful it is relative to other substances. There is no doubt in my mind, and in the view of many health professionals, that cannabis is a much safer drug than alcohol, a drug that is currently legal; indeed, many would say our society is awash with alcohol. You can't overdose when it comes to cannabis. You can overdose when it comes to other drugs. Indeed, you can become very unwell and die from alcohol toxicity. People who consume vast quantities of alcohol can aspirate it, and aspiration is a common cause of death amongst young people. That simply doesn't happen when it comes to cannabis. We know that alcohol has a whole range of other effects on people's livers; it can be a cause of liver failure and liver cancer. We know that that's simply not the case when it comes to cannabis. Alcohol has a whole range of effects on the gastrointestinal system—things that aren't seen with cannabis consumption. The reality is, if we're using the standard of cannabis being a harmful drug, then, by that same standard, we should make alcohol illegal. We don't, because we accept that the use of alcohol also comes with a range of benefits to the community. People continue to use it; they do it because they enjoy it, and they'll continue to do it regardless of what policymakers suggest.

But, beyond the relative harm of cannabis compared to alcohol, the more important question is: what are the harms happening right now under our current system? We know those harms are significant. We know that many people are exposed to drugs—as I said earlier—of unknown quality and purity. They are being driven to purchase their drugs through a network of criminal dealers. And what we see is a current system that props up criminality and that redirects resources away from where they're needed, to prosecute these laws which are having no effect deterring people from using the drug. They divert a huge amount of taxpayer money into areas that aren't working, when we could be investing in a whole range of areas that we know do work.

Again, let's be very clear about what we need to do when it comes to cannabis. We need to ensure that our laws reduce harm and reflect the fact that cannabis is actually less harmful than some currently available drugs. Our plan will redefine cannabis as a legal substance in a regulated market. It will ensure that we redirect resources into drug treatment, into drug education and, of course, into the broader health budget. In place of prohibition—in place of the laws that currently make cannabis illegal—we'll create a regulated, adult-use market for legal cannabis. At the heart of our plan is an understanding that people are using it. They will continue to use it. And our job is to reduce the harms associated with that use.

Creating a regulated legal market would bust the business model of criminal drug dealers. It would ensure greater protections for vulnerable cannabis users. It would ensure that people have accurate, up-to-date information about the potential harms associated with those substances. And it would allow for the significant revenue that's currently lining the pockets of criminal syndicates to be invested in our health system. Our plan would establish an Australian cannabis agency, which would draw together state and territory governments, medical experts and regulators. The agency would issue licences for the production of cannabis and for the sale of cannabis, and it would carry out a program of monitoring. It would monitor growers to make sure that people are getting what they believe they're buying based on what's on the label. It would also ensure that the outlets where cannabis products are being sold behave in a way that's consistent with the scheme. The agency would act as a single wholesaler for cannabis: you'd see people producing cannabis—they'd grow it—and government would act as a single wholesaler for that cannabis. Those products would then be sold in plain packaging to retail stores to ensure quality and consistency.

In short, we would have a series of cannabis retail shops which, in the same way as when people are buying alcohol, require ID for entry. The sale of cannabis to anyone under 18 would be prohibited. The cannabis available for sale would be in plain packaging. There would be clear information about the grower, the strain—including the proportions of THC and other cannabinoids—and the colloquial name of the product, and health warnings. Rather than being purchased through a criminal dealer, who has no interest in the welfare of the user, cannabis would be sold by staff who are required to undertake a responsible-sale-of-cannabis course, much like what we do when it comes to alcohol. They would have mental health first aid training. They would ensure that anybody they identified as having a problem with their use is redirected into treatment. That treatment would be well funded with the revenue generated through this scheme. In our plan there would be no advertising or sponsorship for cannabis. We don't want to make the same mistakes that were made in the alcohol industry. We'd be promoting small-scale production and be ensuring that people are getting access to regulated product.

Our plan would support Australians to grow cannabis at home for personal use. Some states already allow this to happen, but we would try to harmonise how this is done so that people can grow a small number of plants in their backyard, providing it's for their own personal use. Those people wouldn't be able to sell what they have grown, because we want to ensure we have a regulated market in the same way as we have for other markets, but those people would be free to grow and produce their own product. Our plan would impose strict penalties on the sale of unlicensed or black market cannabis. If people are going to access regulated product of known quality and purity from a known grower, we have to ensure the market has clear regulations associated with it.

There would continue to be strict penalties for people driving under the influence of cannabis, but they must be driving under the influence of cannabis. Unfortunately, the current situation means we are detecting cannabis in individuals who may have consumed that drug days before they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. The consequence is that we're not making our roads safer; we're simply enforcing prohibition through the back door. As with alcohol, we need to ensure we have standardised testing of people's ability to drive a motor vehicle, but it can't be testing that captures people who may have used the drug previously, maybe days before. That has no bearing whatsoever on their ability to drive a vehicle. We need to test for impairment, not simply for past use.

In our plan, cannabis would be subject to GST as well as a level of federal excise to ensure that the price is broadly similar to the price of cannabis at the moment. As I said earlier, a proportion of that revenue would be redirected into drug treatment. If we did this, we could ensure that not one person in Australia has to wait for a treatment bed and that every single facility is available for people when they need it. Whether somebody's using opiates like heroin, or methamphetamine or other substances, there's no excuse for the fact that people can't get access to treatment when they need it. Legalising cannabis will create a commercial market for its production and sale. The production and cultivation of cannabis will create jobs in regional communities. That is a good thing.

The final aspect of the plan involves the establishment of an advisory committee of experts from across harm reduction, clinical mental health, user advocates, law enforcement and other relevant sectors. We'd commission an independent review of the regulations after two years, with public reporting of all the findings and recommendations. This is a way to ensure that we have a plan that's relevant to all the key constituents, making sure that it's up to date and relevant. So, by the end of this sitting year we're going to be introducing a private member's bill that doesn't simply remove some of the criminal penalties associated with the use of cannabis but also outlines a detailed plan for what a regulated cannabis market would look like here in Australia. The bill will establish the cannabis agency and support all the other aspects of our plan.

We support this legislation, but we need to do much more. We need to drag Australia into the 21st century. We need to look at the lead of those states within the US, to look at Canada, to look at places like Uruguay, to look at Spain, to look at our neighbours across the ditch, in New Zealand. They're all moving in this direction, because they know that our current drug laws don't work; that they turn innocent, law-abiding people into criminals; and that they don't prevent people from using these substances but force them to make choices that are riskier and more harmful. Instead, we're proposing a regulated market that reduces harms, that ensures that people who get into trouble with drug use, whether it be alcohol, cannabis or other illicit substances, get access to treatment when they need it and that we have evidence based policies that put Australia in the direction of a more compassionate, decent, sensible community working to look after its citizens and recognising when the laws that we have simply don't work.