A joint Drug Policy Working Group comprising members of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine (AChAM) and the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM) led the development of a position statement and recommendations to outline the rationale and evidence for a health-focused approach to inform policy development by governments and organisations across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The RACP trains, educates and advocates on behalf of over 22,600 physicians and 9,600 trainee physicians, across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. In November 2024 they drew up the ‘Achieving a health-focused approach to drug policy in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’ policy statement. In the sixty-three page document (PDF file), the RACP calls for the legalisation of cannabis use and possession for personal use, and the development and implementation of a tightly controlled Australian regulated cannabis market, alongside comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of positive and negative impacts.
The RACP further states that due to the prevalence of use of cannabis (>10% of Australian and New Zealanders aged 15 to 64 in 2021); the relatively low risk of harm associated with typical cannabis use when compared with other substances and the emerging evidence for the potential benefits of such an approach internationally, starting with cannabis is a prudent first step. They also note broad community support for such an approach, with more Australians supporting cannabis legalisation than opposing it.
The RACP calls on governments, among other considerations for other substances, to:
- Establish trials of regulated cannabis markets in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
- Expand use of court and police diversion programs for all people who have committed drug-related and non-violent crimes.
- Review the use of drug detection dogs by Australian police services and consider reducing or eliminating their use.
- Offer safe and, where possible, permanent, non-abstinence-based housing to homeless or under-housed people without requiring a commitment to abstinence from using alcohol or illegal drugs.
- Support trauma-informed harm reduction responses that acknowledge the impact of colonisation, racism, systemic discrimination and cultural oppression from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples.
- Review driving regulations to optimise individual and public safety, while minimising unnecessary infringements upon civil liberties and avoiding stigma towards people who use drugs.
The RACP also notes the evidence shows that Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have largely not benefitted from drug law reforms that grant police discretionary powers on whether to charge individuals for possession of cannabis in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Further, regulation must capture drugs as they emerge, rather than retrospectively. An example of harm arising through failure to account for emerging drugs was the ‘synthetic cannabinoid*’ crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand, wherein the illegal status of traditional cannabis directed users towards harmful drugs, which were not accounted for by the existing drug law.
Many countries have introduced regulated supply systems for cannabis, and Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia have a sophisticated legal medicinal cannabis industry which could be adapted to providing regulated cannabis for their markets. However, regulated access needs to be carefully managed, addressing issues of consumer access (e.g. preventing sales to minors), community safety (including drug driving), advertising, commercial interests (avoiding ‘big business’ as has happened in some parts of the United States of America), quality control of products and licensing.
As of November 2023, the following countries have legalised cannabis use: Canada, Germany, Georgia, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay as well as 24 states in the United States of America. Legal regulated cannabis markets exist in Canada, Thailand and Uruguay. The RACP’s position on effective drug policy includes educational, preventative and harm reduction measures, evidence-based treatment services and regulatory options to reduce harm associated with drug use and criminalisation. People use drugs, including alcohol, for a variety of reasons including enjoyment, relaxation, socialisation, avoidance or reduction of psychological distress and/or physical pain.
Mind Medicine Australia
Many cultures have long-standing traditions of using psychoactive substances in their spiritual and healing practices. As physicians, the RACP’s perspective on drug use derives from:
a. Drug use is common and is most often “episodic, transient and generally non-problematic”.
b. Drug use can cause harm and risk of harm to the person and to others.
c. Importantly, for policy, both the use of drugs and our response to the use of drugs can cause harm.
d. As a society we should seek to reduce harm from drugs to the greatest extent possible, through the judicious application of evidence-based education, preventative, early intervention, treatment and harm reduction approaches.
The RACP endorses the World Health Organization’s (WHO) public health approach to drug use, recognising that it exists as a spectrum and that society’s responses should adopt the most effective strategies relevant to;
(i) those whose drug use is low level and occasional,
(ii) those at risk of harm,
(iii) those experiencing harm, and
(iv) those who have a drug use disorder and/or dependence.
*Synthetics are NOT cannabinoids and should simply be called synthetics
NB: Cannabis sativa is a herb, not a drug. However, extracts of the plant can be called drugs.