Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the recent Australian Lawyers Alliance report Doing more harm than good: the need for a health-focused approach to drug use. This is an excellent report, and I would recommend that people have a very good read of it.

The report so clearly demonstrates how drug policies across Australia are ineffective and, in fact, causing harm. Current policies target and stigmatise people who use drugs. This sends people who use drugs, who are fearful of law enforcement, underground. People who use drugs become reliant on drug suppliers, not just for the drugs themselves but also, as the Australian Lawyers Alliance pointed out, for any information about what they are taking and how they should use it. This fuels a dangerously unregulated drug market, and people of all ages and backgrounds are dying as a result. It's very clearly pointed out in this report.

With this context in mind, it is little wonder that people who use drugs are less likely to know where or even if they can seek help. This effectively denies chronically ill Australians the medical treatment and health support they need. For years now, many medical and public health experts have been advocating for a shift in the focus of drug policy from criminal law enforcement to the broader health and social issues associated with the harmful use of drugs. Again, this is pointed out in the report and has, in fact, been starting to occur elsewhere on the planet.

The report points out that Australia's current approach, with its emphasis on criminalisation, has shown little success in reducing illicit drug use. This approach has failed to address rates of recidivism among people who use drugs, and has failed to reduce the number of people overdosing on drugs. In fact, criminalisation exacerbates people's disadvantage, resulting in further financial distress, mental ill health, and difficulties finding and keeping housing.

In my home state of Western Australia, WANADA—the peak body for the drug and alcohol sector in Western Australia—reported in its 2020 state budget submission that approximately 30 per cent to 50 per cent of people accessing mental health services have co-occurring issues with alcohol and other drug use. The criminalisation of drug use also increases the level of stigma associated with drugs, and further marginalises and excludes people who use drugs. Prohibiting certain drugs is inherently stigmatising because it conveys a message that certain drugs are bad and, therefore, so too are the people who use them. As a result, criminalisation and prohibition have been unsuccessful in addressing the various social problems associated with substance abuse. Again, this is clearly pointed out in the report.

For more than half a century, governments have aggressively pursued a disastrous war on drugs. This policy, which criminalises a health problem and has only succeeded in making things worse, needs to change. There are many alternative approaches to criminalisation that I urge the federal government and state and territory governments, who are also responsible for making laws in association with drug use, to seriously consider. These are pointed out in the report. Decriminalisation removes the use or possession of a prohibited substance from criminal offences, and implements a range of civil and administrative measures to deal with the conduct. In this case, there is a state response designed to deter the conduct from occurring again—for example, similar to traffic violation, where a fine may be issued to deter the conduct. Legalisation is another area to consider. This removes the criminal offence for the use or possession of substances, and does not replace it.

Regulation of the use and possession of substances involves a regulatory model of prescription, pharmacy or licensed sales. For example, this could take the form of the medicinal cannabis market. The Australian Lawyers Alliance strongly supports the decriminalisation and, preferably, the legalisation of the possession and use of illicit substances. It is evident that decriminalising or legalising drugs does not increase use but instead allows harm minimisation policies to be put in place that produce better outcomes for users.

As more and more countries recognise the failure of criminalisation as a policy response to substance abuse, the evidence for effectiveness of health focused harm minimisation strategies is becoming more apparent. But Australians states and territories have been cautious in their approach by comparison to these countries. There are significant benefits to adopting internationally recognised harm minimisation policies—again, pointed out in the report. For example, the costs associated with the criminal justice system are reduced, meaning public funding and resources could be redirected into health and social services. In other words, treat this issue as the health issue it is. There would also be reduced numbers of people in the criminal justice system, where many people end up for minor offences—in WA, more than 80 per cent of prisoners and offenders appearing before the courts were identified as having problems associated with substance use. Finally, it enables individuals to address the health and social problems that often arise from illicit substance use; 94 per cent of people accessing alcohol and other drug services have reported lifetime exposure to homelessness.

It is time for reform. We need leadership urgently on national drug law reform, to explore the range of options to decriminalise and de-penalise, legalise and regulate our current approaches. This will enable the diversion of government funding and financial resources from law enforcement, prosecution and incarceration into health and social services. It will also ensure that the inherent dignity of people who use drugs will be respected and promoted by removing the criminalised stigma associated with illicit drug use. The government has a responsibility under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to ensure that everybody has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights promotes all people receiving health care in Australia having the right to receive safe, high-quality care in an effective continuum.

Tonight I'm calling on the state, territory and federal governments to abandon their current approaches, which have failed. Prohibition and criminalisation of substance abuse has not worked. Embrace decriminalisation, take a harm minimisation approach and invest in public health and social services to address drug use, the causes of addiction and the associated social and health effects. All governments in Australia must stop and think about the approach they have taken. Analyse it: it is not working. It is time that we developed a new approach. We need to take a harm minimisation approach and we need to address this issue as the health issue that it is. We can help and support people.

We need to stop criminalising and stigmatising people who use drugs. It is time to stop devoting precious public resources to criminal law enforcement and to start working together to build a harm minimisation approach that treats alcohol and other drug dependence as the health issue that it is. The Commonwealth government should and must take leadership here. State and territory governments also need to take leadership and look to the work that's being done internationally. Look at what works and look at how we can better support people, not stigmatise them. We should ensure that drug addiction and drug use are treated—as I keep repeating, because I want to ram this message home—as a health issue. It needs to be addressed as such.