Drugs and the law - Hot Topics 59 - Find Legal Answers

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The first laws restricting opium were carefully worded toapply to opium in smokable form only – not opium as itwas taken by the European population.Cannabis plants were sent to Australia by Sir JosephBanks on the First Fleet, in the hope that the new colonymight grow enough hemp to supply the British Navywith rope. Cannabis was not consumed on a large scale(although it was readily available for sale as cigarettescalled ‘Cigares de Joy’ until the 1920s). Cannabisimportation and use was prohibited by federal legislationin 1926 (implementing the 1925 Geneva Conventionon Opium and Other Drugs), with the States adoptingsimilar prohibition in the following years.Heroin was legally available on prescription in Australiauntil 1953. It was so widely used as a painkiller and incough mixtures that Australia was the world’s largestper capita user of heroin. The 1953 prohibition of heroinwas the result of international pressure on Australia toconform to the prohibition of heroin adopted by othercountries, with some opposition from the AMA.Ironically, heroin, cannabis, and other drugs wereprohibited in Australia well before their use became amajor social issue.Before the 1960s, drug use was not completely unknown,but dependent drug use was typically the result of theuse of opiates after first using them for medical reasons.There were drug dependent doctors (and their wives),and a small bohemian subculture that used drugs. ManyAustralian arrests for drug offences involved visiting jazzmusicians.Among the significant social changes of the 1960s wasthe emergence of the concept of ‘recreational’ drug use– the consumption of cannabis, heroin, LSD and otherpsychoactive drugs for pleasure, or in pursuit of spiritualenlightenment. For the first time, drug use becamewidespread – if not quite mainstream – rather than anactivity pursued by a few painters or poets. The officialresponse was increased law enforcement, and legislativechange to extend the range of offences and increasedpenalties for drug offences.The ‘old’ Australian drug laws were mostly under thevarious state Poisons Acts, reflecting an underlyingapproach of regulation and control of medicinalsubstances, with potentially addictive drugs legallyavailable only on a doctor’s prescription. The ‘new’ druglaws introduced a distinction between use and possessionoffences, and supply offences. Penalties for possessionand use increased, but very substantial penalties wereintroduced for drug supply, and especially supply of largequantities (‘drug trafficking’). By 1970, all the states hadenacted laws that made drug supply a separate offence todrug use or possession offences.In 1985, the federal and state governments adopted aNational Drug Strategy which included a pragmaticmixture of prohibition and a stated objective of harmreduction. Harm reduction has been an official partof Australian drugs policy ever since, although mostresources by far are devoted to policing and border patrolattempts at interdiction (‘supply reduction’). Fewerresources are made available for health treatment anddrug rehabilitation programs, or for preventative publichealth programs such as needle exchange.The needle exchange program has been successful.Australia maintains an extremely low rate of HIVinfection among injecting drug users, compared toinfection rates of 60% or more among injecting drugusers in some US cities, where needle exchange remainsillegal. The success of the needle exchange programsencouraged governments to at least consider adoptingother harm minimisation initiatives.image u navailableJason South, The Age (Melbourne).history of drug laws 3
The merits of a trial of a heroin prescription program,based on the Swiss model, were debated in the 1990s.The ACT government took steps to begin a trialprogram, but the Federal Government refused to allowthe importation of heroin. Unable to source legitimateand controlled quality heroin, the ACT governmentabandoned the proposed trial.Australia has been tentative about allowing legal injectingrooms, with NSW the only state to permit an injectingroom, and then only one, on a trial basis.In all states, the impact of prohibitionist laws on drugusers is somewhat modified by a number of diversionprograms, diverting some eligible users from the criminaljustice system to cautions or treatment.THe drug pOlicy debaTePublic debate over drug policy and calls for ‘drug lawreform’ began in the late 1960s and has continued since.The opposition to prohibition was at first largely anargument on libertarian grounds: that people shouldhave the right to consume drugs if they hurt nobodydoing so, positing drug offences as victimless crimes.Those arguments are still made.However, most arguments for reform today come fromthe harm reduction perspective. It is suggested that thelegal prohibition of drugs creates crime, and makesdrug-taking more physically dangerous. Prohibitionalso requires significant public expenditure withoutpreventing significant levels of problematic drug use inthe community.The primary argument against relaxation of the criminallaw treatment of drugs is that it would cause drug use toincrease, and consequently lead to an increase in drugdependence. The social cost of drug use would likely riseif drugs became more freely available and more freelyconsumed. Although prohibition cannot completelyprevent drug use, the risk of being caught by the policehas a directly discouraging effect on drug users andwould-be drug users. Prohibition forces drug priceshigher, indirectly discouraging drug use.It is also argued that having laws which make drug use(and supply) illegal has a symbolic effect, ‘sending amessage’ that drug use is socially undesirable.image u navailableAn ‘ice pipe’ used for smoking crystal methamphetamine. Taken 30 July 2003.Shannon Morris, The Age (Melbourne).4HOT TOPICS 59 > Drugs and the law
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