Wednesday the 11th of September, 2024
Victorian Legislative Council
RACHEL PAYNE (Member for South-Eastern Metropolitan): I rise to make a contribution to motion 527 in my own name. I move:
That this house:
(1) notes that the continued prohibition of cannabis forces thousands of Victorians through the criminal justice system, wastes immense police resources, empowers the illicit market and is at odds with public sentiment, with 80 per cent of Australians believing that the possession of cannabis should not be a criminal offence;
(2) requires the Legal and Social Issues Committee to inquire into, consider and report, no later than 18 March 2025, on the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Regulation of Personal Adult Use of Cannabis) Bill 2023, including consideration of the impacts of the Australian Capital Territory’s decriminalisation of the personal use of cannabis; and
(3) defers the second reading of this bill until the final report of the committee is presented to the house in accordance with the terms of this resolution.
To understand why we are here today, I think it is useful that I begin by taking you back to November last year, when we first debated this bill. During debate the Minister for Mental Health, Minister Stitt, stated that:
… the government is amenable to ongoing discussions with the Legalise Cannabis Victoria Party on this topic and a process that would take the advice of experts and engage with the community.
We also heard from the opposition that:
… we need more data to come in on this.
Following this debate we continued to work with the government to understand what a process for reform could look like. While this work was underway it was important to us that the many Victorians calling for change continued to be heard. That is why earlier this year we presented a petition signed by almost 3000 people to allow for the consumption and possession of small quantities of cannabis. It only took us a handful of days to collect these signatures, a testament to how many people are sick and tired of the continued prohibition of cannabis.
This government responded to our petition in July this year. In their response they cited the need for evidence-based action and that health-led policies towards drug use yield positive social and economic outcomes. So a pattern begins to emerge – a bipartisan appetite for advice, community engagement and evidence-based action. This is why today we seek to debate this motion and ensure that this government walks the talk. Taking our bill through the committee process will allow us to hear from experts, consult with the community and review the evidence, including by considering the experience of the ACT.
Debates around the impacts of cannabis prohibition are not new. In fact former Premier Jeff Kennett has stated on several occasions that one of his greatest regrets is that he did not get his party over the line to decriminalise cannabis when it was considered in 1996. Interestingly, when I review some of the newspaper clippings from this time I can see that all of the arguments put forward back then, nearly 30 years ago, are the same arguments I am putting forward today. I would like to refer to one pearler I found from 14 March 1996 in the Herald Sun from ‘Regular smoker, country Victoria’:
My husband and I are smokers (over 20 years) … We do not take other drugs. We are not mindless, crazed junkies, nor are we thieves.
We both have responsible jobs and we have two beautiful, well-looked after and intelligent children. About 90 per cent of our friends are smokers and are mostly successful professionals.
We used to grow a couple of plants for our own use but since we got busted a couple of years ago (three plants, $450 fine and a criminal conviction), we now buy from dealers. By keeping marijuana laws as they are we are making dealers rich ($400 an oz, $30 a gram).
Not much has changed in the conversation, nor has the price of illicit cannabis.
Turning now to the first part of our motion, this outlines just some of the consequences of the continued criminalisation of cannabis. This is not an exhaustive list. Such a list would keep us here for days, and fortunately for you all I only have a limited amount of time in this debate. What this list does show is why we will not stop pushing for changes to cannabis laws. Thanks to the latest national drug strategy household survey we now know that 80 per cent of Australians believe that possession of cannabis should not be a criminal offence. By our calculations that is roughly 4.5 million Victorians that are ready for change. Victorians are increasingly seeing places overseas and domestically reform their cannabis laws without the sky falling in. One in three of them has firsthand experience with cannabis. It is no wonder that they are asking themselves why we continue to criminalise cannabis. Attitudes towards cannabis are clearly changing, and we must change with them. Existing laws have created a disconnect. There is a rightfully relaxed attitude towards cannabis, and most people assume that it is really no big deal. But what people often forget about is the harm that current laws cause to thousands of Victorians, particularly our most vulnerable. In 2021 there were almost 9000 people charged with personal cannabis use and possession in Victoria. First Nations people are grossly over-represented in this group. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are eight times more likely to be arrested for possession of cannabis. The criminalisation of cannabis does not protect, it simply hurts people.
Last month we stood in this place and debated the Youth Justice Bill 2024 well into the night. Most here recognise the importance of ensuring young people are diverted away from the criminal justice system wherever possible. We recognise this because there is a mountain of data to back up the fact that once a young person enters the criminal justice system they are much more likely to keep going back. When a young person has a criminal record, organisations designed to assist them with things like housing and employment often have their hands tied. People do not want to employ or house someone with a criminal record.
It is already difficult for someone to reach out to a service provider and say, ‘I need help’, let alone when doors are being shut in their face. Even just the stigma surrounding cannabis continues to cause such unnecessary harm.
Legalise Cannabis Victoria has done a lot of work since being elected to help reduce this stigma. This extends to our work with medicinal cannabis patients and the barriers they face in Victorian workplaces and on the roads. These are people consuming cannabis medicinally, something that is very much legal in Victoria. Yet because of the surrounding stigma, in part thanks to the continued criminalisation of cannabis, patients are trapped in a constant cycle of judgement and having to justify themselves. Existing laws prevent patients from driving, even when they take their medication as prescribed and are not impaired. Victoria’s roadside drug testing checks for the presence of only three substances: THC, methamphetamine and MDMA – not impairment. Medicinal cannabis is being treated differently to every other prescription medication.
One of the consequences of this is that many medicinal cannabis patients instead opt for public transport, but here in Victoria we love sniffer dogs and we love a police train station operation, many of which are often in my region in the south-east. These patients are sniffed out and then they are pulled aside like a criminal and must prove to the police that they are a patient and hope that they will be treated with dignity and respect. In the workplace, medicinal cannabis patients are disclosing their prescriptions to their employer, and for no clear reason apart from stigma they are being let go or placed on lesser duties. It is deeply troubling to us that someone can be fired from their job purely because they are taking a medicine prescribed to them by their doctor. These people are taking their medicine as prescribed, they are not impaired at work, and yet they are being treated like they have something wrong.
Pleasantly, recommendation 3 of the report from the inquiry into workplace drug testing in Victoria seeks to address this by enshrining prescription medication and treatment into the Equal Opportunity Act 2010. We hope that this government will respond positively to the recommendation but also recognise the opportunity to go further and address the continued criminalisation of cannabis to reduce stigma.
If the human element is not enough to persuade a change in laws, you can look at the bottom line in the budget. Let us not sugar-coat it – Victoria’s financial position is not great. In every budget since I have been elected, I have let this government know that they are missing out on an opportunity here by regulating personal use cannabis. Victoria spends millions of dollars every year on its continued criminalisation, wasting taxpayer money on policing and the criminal justice system. It also reduces employment opportunities thanks to the criminal record it leaves people with. We know from estimates from the Parliamentary Budget Office that the 2022 illicit cannabis market in Victoria was likely worth over a whopping $1 billion. Instead of this going towards the Victorian economy, existing laws position criminal organisations to reap the rewards. Lawful cannabis could create thousands of secure jobs, cut law enforcement costs and inject hundreds of millions of much-needed dollars into our state. The need for change could not be clearer.
As a significant number of countries and states legalise and decriminalise cannabis, we have an increasing amount of data to draw from to reassure those in this place that the end of prohibition will not be the end of our sanity. One of the best examples we can draw from is close to home. That is why our motion ensures the committee will consider the impacts of the ACT’s decriminalisation of personal use of cannabis. Almost next door we have an Australian jurisdiction that has decriminalised cannabis. We have a lot we can learn from their experience. In recent weeks the ACT government published a review into the four-year impact of their bill that decriminalised cannabis. Some of their major findings of this review are that cannabis use has not increased and remains below national averages, charges laid for cannabis offences and diversions have continued to decline to very low levels, no changes in cannabis-related presentations to ambulances and hospital admissions, and there was no evident changes in the availability of cannabis.
When tabling the review the minister stated that:
Some feared an increase in harms related to cannabis use, including an increased burden on our health system and an increase in organised crime. I stand before you today with clear evidence that many of the fears raised have not been realised.
Stakeholder responses to the review were overwhelmingly positive, noting reduced stigma and discrimination and improved relationships between cannabis consumers and the police. Our motion would allow us to dig further into the review’s findings and how we can best achieve reform. Beyond looking at the outcomes of decriminalisation in the ACT, this will give us the opportunity to compare and contrast their approach to legalisation.
I turn to our proposal. For those in need of a refresher on our Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Regulation of Personal Adult Use of Cannabis Bill) 2023, it would allow adults personal possession of small quantities of cannabis, allow adults to grow up to six plants of cannabis at home, allow adults consumption of cannabis but not in a public place, allow adults to gift a small quantity of cannabis and prevent children under the age of 18 from accessing cannabis. Issues like the gifting of cannabis, the possession of seeds and restrictions around where growing is allowed can be examined. It is our hope that a more detailed look at the data coming out of the ACT will help mitigate some of the fears that people in this place have.
The original inquiry into the use of cannabis in Victoria occurred at a time when changes to the law in the ACT were in their infancy. We had a different Parliament, a different Premier and a different minister. It is here that I would like to formally acknowledge the mountain of work to progress this issue done by those who came before us. Specifically, special thanks must be given to Fiona Patten, a former member in this chamber who in 2021 initiated the inquiry into the use of cannabis in Victoria as well as chairing the committee. The report is extensive and invaluable and continues to assist us in the work that we do. Now more than ever we understand the need for commonsense laws that are focused on harm reduction rather than the endlessly unhelpful approach that is the war on drugs. It is our hope that a new inquiry focused specifically on our proposed model for reform will allow this government to take an informed position on cannabis. This bill inquiry is a process that would take the advice of experts and engage the community. It would enable evidence-based action and health-led policies. This is a step forward that the government has asked for, and it is time to walk the talk. We encourage this government to support our motion and to use this inquiry to free themselves from the fears they have when it comes to ending cannabis prohibition. There is a better way forward for cannabis in Victoria.
RACHEL PAYNE (Member for South-Eastern Metropolitan): I want to thank everyone first and foremost for making a contribution today, and I just want to bring it back to the issue here, because what the motion actually is seeking to do is to investigate this bill, to have a bill review before the Legal and Social Issues Committee. It is about parliamentary process. It is about the levers that we have available to us to look at the validity of this bill and see if it is fit for purpose, see if more information is needed. I appreciate that many of you have raised concerns around health and wellbeing, around mental health, around the impacts on vulnerable communities, around resourcing of police and the impacts on the judicial system, the police and prison systems and the costs associated. This is why we are seeking to have a look at this bill and see if it is fit for purpose.
For those that have been against the principle of moving forward with cannabis reform, my question to you is: what do you want to do? Do you want the status quo to remain? Because it is not working. It is nearly 100 years of failed public policy, 100 years of failed legislation. Now, if this were any other form of legislation, it would have been scrapped by now. To continue to perpetuate arguments that are outdated, unfounded and, frankly, stigmatising, is really quite inappropriate.
To take you up on some of your points, Ms Crozier, you say that we are sending the wrong message to the public, I would argue that you are sending the wrong message to the public. To your concerns raised about the most vulnerable in our community and the impacts on them: what has the criminalisation of cannabis done and who has it impacted the most – our vulnerable communities.
Interestingly, I work quite closely with the AMA. We have done a lot of work around access to cannabis and medicinal cannabis in the hospital system, and we are working quite closely on making sure that medicinal cannabis patients have access to their medication and vaporisers to ensure that their healthcare approach is particularly led by the hospital system. But in regard to the AMA, how many lives have been destroyed by the overprescribing of benzodiazepines? Is this something that the AMA is taking up, and is this something that is at the forefront of their questioning?
I would also like to talk about Mrs Hermans’ contribution; in particular you raised the issue around the south-east. As a member for the South-East, as well as my colleague Mr Limbrick, we know very well how much cannabis is something the people of the south-east really do care about. The latest Pennington data shows that in the local council areas of Casey, Greater Dandenong and Knox, 10,977 people were arrested for minor cannabis charges between 2018 and 2023. Now, are you saying that you do not care about those people? Is that what you are saying? Because to indicate that you think that this would cause major issues in the south-east is just untrue. We also have to remember that I got elected under the Legalise Cannabis banner in the South-East for this particular issue – 5.15 per cent. That was my first preference primary vote.
It was the highest vote out of any of the regions for Legalise Cannabis, so I do argue with you that it is a really important issue for the people of the south-east. I will not continue, because I am just going to get more fired-up. But I do thank everyone for their contributions today, and I commend the motion to the house.
Motion agreed to.
