Rachel presented a motion on police cautions for cannabis possession. In 2024, Victoria Police updated their operations manual to prioritise cautions over arrests, for individuals possessing small quantities of cannabis for personal adult use. However, this change has widely gone unnoticed by the public, stakeholders and even members of the police force. Rachel’s motion calls on the government to enshrine this update in legislation, thereby removing the grey area around cannabis cautioning, for fair and even application of the law – no arrest, no court resources, no jail time.
Wednesday the 13th of May 2026,
Victorian Legislative Council
Rachel Payne (South-Eastern Metropolitan):
Victoria is going through a crime wave. Official data indicates the highest number of criminal incidents recorded in 20 years. As of late 2025 early 2026, crime has risen to record levels, with almost a 22 per cent increase in property and theft offences, including retail and car theft. Melbourne is also experiencing a surge in targeted arson attacks. Carjackings, family violence, hate crimes and home invasions remain stubbornly high and have the community scared. If the Victorian government are serious about tackling crime, we need to free up police time and resources and we need to do this immediately. One solution is simple: stop wasting police time and resources on policing small-time personal use of cannabis. We are not talking about drug dealers or organised crime, we are talking about police and court time and resources being wasted on a non-violent, victimless crime. In good news, the police agree. And today I stand to debate a motion to have existing police policy brought into legislation.
Prioritise policing violent crimes
The most damaging crimes are violent crimes. This is where police resources should be directed. Arguably the most damaging and persistent crime in Victoria is family violence. According to the Crime Statistics Agency, family violence in Victoria is rising, with police recording close to 100,000 incidents in the 2023–24 year and a 6 per cent increase in the previous year. This equates to an incident roughly every 6 minutes. One woman is murdered every week in Australia by an intimate partner.
At the same time Victoria Police are trying to manage critical staff shortages. There are over 1400 to 2000 vacancies, declining members and station closures. We need to ask ourselves if we prefer the police to be stopping and searching Victorians for a joint or attending a family violence call-out. The community is under pressure, and police resources must be freed up to focus on preventing serious harm and protecting victims who are our community’s most vulnerable.
Non-violent crimes, such as the possession of tiny amounts of cannabis for personal use, is not where police resources should be directed, and evidently Victoria Police agree with us. In September 2024 they updated their operations manual, or the Victoria Police manual (VPM), to prioritise cautions over arrests for personal cannabis possession. What this means is that serving police members are now recommended to issue a caution for small personal use of cannabis and not arrest. No arrest, no record, no waste of police time or court resources. This marks a meaningful shift in the policing of cannabis, and we strongly welcome this change. Let us be frank: no police officer wants to be arresting people for 5 grams of weed. I am from Legalise Cannabis Party, and obviously I do not think anyone should be criminalised for cannabis at all, but that is a discussion obviously for another day.
Cannabis cautioning program (CCP)
For background, the Victoria Police cannabis cautioning program, or the CCP, was officially implemented on 1 September 1998. It allowed police discretion to caution rather than arrest people found in possession of small quantities of cannabis. In 2024 the VPM was updated quietly, very quietly – and I will return to that point – but updated, nonetheless. The VPM now recommends that police members caution people found with small amounts of cannabis rather than arrest, and for the number of cautions to be unlimited. This is good policy. The Victoria Police drug strategy supports health-led, prevention-first approaches to tackling drug harms and treatment-based responses to use and possession for all drugs. For cannabis this means cautioning. We are so very pleased to see Victoria Police leading the way here. The reality is police do not want to waste their time on arrests for non-violent crimes.
We spoke to Greg Denham from Harm Reduction Australia. Greg was a serving police member from 1980 to 2002, a distinguished 22-year career in policing. Greg rose to the rank of senior sergeant with Victoria Police and was a senior adviser in drug policy between 1997 and 2002. Greg was around when the cannabis cautioning program was first introduced in 1998, and he was part of the design of the program. In Greg’s words:
“The idea was simple – save police time and resources, protect the public and, give police members a clear way out of an impossible situation. Nobody joins Victoria police to spend their shift busting someone for a joint. But we were stuck. We never wanted to ruin someone’s life over something like that, so members were doing all sorts of things off the books – turning a blind eye, flushing it. That’s not good policing. Legislate cautioning and give officers something solid to stand on.“
Greg’s views reflect what more than 80 per cent of Victorians already recognise: that personal possession of cannabis should not be a criminal offence. Criminalising cannabis has not worked. After almost 100 years of prohibition, Australians still consume cannabis, and you know what, they always will. The question is whether we want to focus valuable police time and resources on that or more important matters.
Harm reduction and human rights
From a harm reduction point of view, we also need to ask if we want early intervention, which a caution approach offers, or punishment. To be clear on what this means in practice, if found in possession of small amounts of cannabis, Victorians who meet the criteria since September 2024 are issued a formal caution rather than facing charges or court proceedings. That means no criminal record. Having a criminal record for drug possession, no matter how harmless or small, has massive impacts on a person’s life. It can limit access to jobs, education, housing and mental health support. However, nearly 4000 Victorians are still being arrested for possession of cannabis every single year.
The cannabis cautioning scheme was introduced in 1998, almost 28 years ago, and the police operations manual was updated in 2024, but arrests still remain high, at 48 per cent, and cautions remain far too low, at 37.5 per cent. Again, more often than not the offending is minor, and the individual poses no risk to the community whatsoever. I am often asked about the relative harms of something like alcohol compared to cannabis. My response often is, and often I am half joking when I say this, but it is true: would you rather come across a group of drunk people in the park or on King Street or even in your home or a bunch of stoned people? I think we all know the answer to that question.
The cannabis cautioning scheme was designed to allow Victoria Police to respond to small-time possession in a way that is proportionate and focused on reducing harm. It frees up police resources. It is also aligned with the International Drug Control Conventions and Victoria’s charter of human rights. As we know, Victoria Police are obliged to take human rights into account under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006. The charter identifies several rights that may be relevant to cannabis-related matters, including: the right to recognition and equality before the law, section 8; the right to life, section 9; protection from torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, section 10; and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, section 14. Under the core United Nations drug control conventions, including the 1988 UN convention, countries retain scope to respond to minor drug possession matters with education, treatment, rehabilitation and social integration rather than conviction or punishment. So both the Victorian charter and the UN drug policies share a key principle: that when cannabis use is minor, the best approach is to focus on reducing harms and avoiding unnecessary criminal charges.
Victoria Police Manual and lack of transparency
So again, we welcome the update to the Victoria Police manual; however, we have some concerns. Interestingly, the change to the VPM is not well known. To be honest, that is a huge understatement. I was not aware of the change until quite recently. We spoke to multiple stakeholders who had no idea of this change either. We have spoken to current serving police officers and former police officers who are not aware of this change either. The VPM can only be found on CD-ROM, and to view this manual you either have to go into the State Library of Victoria, or you send Victoria Police a cheque and you get sent a disc, no less. Even receiving that as a member of Parliament, I had to go around this building to find a CD-ROM drive for it to be transcribed for me. As a comparison, in New South Wales it is freely accessible online.
I talked recently to Professor Kate Seear, who by any measure is one of Australia’s pre-eminent drug reform experts and has been for decades. Kate is a lawyer and is quite literally looking at these kinds of changes all the time. She said:
I was very surprised to learn of the change in Victoria Police’s manual. I had not heard anything about it before now, and I believe many other experts in the sector will also be surprised to hear of this development.
Professor Seear was concerned this meant, in effect, that cannabis consumers and their legal representatives are still not aware that they should be getting cautioned and not arrested for personal use. Take, for example, someone convicted of a small possession of cannabis charge. At the point of arrest, if they are aware of an update they could ask the police member why they are being arrested and not cautioned. When they go to court, their lawyer could be asking the same thing. At the point of sentencing this information is highly relevant to the defence. Rights cannot be exercised if they are not known. Professor Seear agrees with the updates in the police manual and says cautions should be handed out wherever possible. This should be done in a fair manner, consistently and in line with the law and with the charter of human rights. But again, according to Professor Seear, they can only happen if everyday Victorians understand how the caution process works, know they can ask for a caution and understand what accepting one means. She also warns that police decisions must be transparent, consistent and fair – not open to arbitrary interpretation. The law should not depend on who stops you, where you live or how you are perceived – which brings me to the uneven application of cautioning as it currently stands.
Marginalised communities disproportionately affected
I have spoken many times in this chamber about something we all know: cannabis laws are not affecting all Victorians equally. First Nations Victorians are 11 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than non-Indigenous people. This is nothing short of systemic bias. This and other statistics show the inconsistent application of cautioning guidelines. In an era of treaty, we are still locking First Nations people up for small cannabis use, and we are locking them up more than anyone else. If we are serious about closing the gap, we need real, systemic change. Fair treatment under the law should not be optional.
What I am asking for today is that we remove this grey area. The cautioning scheme was introduced in 1998. It was updated in 2024, but no-one seems to know about it, and it is being applied unevenly. The police manual is not easy to access, even for police members. We are unsure how many of them are even aware of the update to the cautioning scheme. In theory members are supposed to keep themselves up to date with changes to their operations manual. In practice this means they would have to use spare time in their shift. Who has spare time as a police officer? They would need to use that time to scan a QR code, download the manual, read it, understand it – the cautioning scheme, we know, is very convoluted – and then apply it evenly. This is obviously impractical and unrealistic.
Clarity benefits everyone
Victoria Police need clarity, and to this end today we ask for the government to support our call to enshrine cautioning in legislation. Victoria Police already want cautioning for personal use of cannabis. Every legal and health expert we spoke to agreed it is the very least we can do: stop Victorians being unnecessarily dragged through the criminal justice system. And VicPol have led the way. We should support them and their members to do the practical thing and the right thing. Legislating cautioning ensures that we are meeting our human rights obligations in practice, not just in theory. It gives busy serving police members clarity and cover. The police we spoke to said consistently that they and their colleagues do not like grey areas. They like to know what they should be doing with absolute certainty. All we are asking is that this clarity be provided in legislation. If any Victorian is found with a small personal possession of cannabis and they meet the relevant criteria, they are issued with a caution – no arrest, no court resources, no jail time. It is a proportionate and evenly applied consequence, a caution. No-one should have their life derailed over a joint. What we need now is for everyone to be on the same page to make that a reality.
Related:
- 12% of arrests, 1% of the population: Cannabis policing in Victoria – Rachel Payne
- Cannabis criminalisation: Arresting our community’s most vulnerable – Rachel Payne
- Cannabis decriminalisation frees up police resources – Rachel Payne
- Millions wasted on cannabis arrests while state debt rises – Rachel Payne
