Australia is in dire need of drug policy reform. Dangerous drugs are freely circulating — around the world, new ones emerge every other day — overdose rates are on the rise, and the police are unable to contain the billion-dollar industry run by large-scale criminal organisations. The current policy approach to cannabis is a three-fold disaster:
1. Huge profits from the $5 billion illicit cannabis market feed into the broader criminal economy, and police operations against dangerous criminal networks routinely reveal these groups’ participation in cannabis cultivation and distribution.
2. The bulk of cannabis-related arrests, however, are for small-time personal use offences, depleting resources that could otherwise address serious crime ranging from family violence to the activities of criminal syndicates supplying more harmful illicit drugs.
3. The uncontrolled drug market imposes a wide range of harms upon individuals, the community, and society more broadly.
The evidence is in. An estimated 2.2 million people report being the victim of illicit drug-related incidents, abuse, or intimidation.
Read more ... Cannabis Regulation Paper July 2024