Wednesday, 6 March 2024

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:11): (757) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Mental Health, Minister Stitt. Last week the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022–2023 was released, providing us with a treasure trove of data on Australia’s use and opinions on legal and illicit drugs. This survey gave us long-awaited data on the impact of the decriminalisation of cannabis in the ACT. Despite the changes made by the ACT government, the use of cannabis in the previous 12 months had not increased. Instead it remained stable, at 8.7 per cent. Since 2007, usage has ranged between 8.4 per cent and 10.5 per cent, meaning that 8.7 per cent is one of the lowest recorded rates. In fact the use of cannabis in the ACT during 2022 and 2023 was lower than in the rest of Australia. The results are in, and they could not be clearer: decriminalisation does not increase usage.

It is so disappointing that Victoria continues to lag behind its domestic and international counterparts. The time for reform is now. Our current prohibition model continues to burden police, burden the criminal justice system and burden its victims with criminal convictions – all at the taxpayers’ expense. And it is not like this government is short of options for reform. Our bill, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Regulation of Personal Adult Use of Cannabis) Bill 2023, improves upon the model of decriminalisation in the ACT, dealing with issues like possession of seeds and gifting. Not only do we have the evidence that decriminalisation does not increase usage, we also have a preprepared bill that can help you make the reforms that you so desperately need. So the action I seek is that the minister commit to regulating the personal adult use of cannabis.