Page 3825 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 30 November 2021
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party on every policy, and the question of drug law reform always took me to a deeply conservative place. I know what it feels like to wish those I loved would have “just said no”. I have come to understand now how naive that thinking was, and I am proud to have come to a more informed place, thanks to the free and fearless contributions of so many who have contributed to the committee’s work.
My work on this committee has spoken to me not only on an intellectual level but on a personal one, too. On the first day of committee hearings in early July, we heard from family members of people who have suffered from substance use and the punitive approach that has historically been taken against these members of our community. Peter was one of those parents and he bravely spoke this truth:
It is wrong that I am here because my son died from a heroin overdose. He should not have died. He should be here today, enjoying life like his contemporaries, like his brother is. He should be here, being an uncle and possibly a father himself. It is painful for me to relive losing a child, as it is for others who have spoken previously. It is a parent’s worst nightmare. I am here because perhaps the contribution I can make to this hearing might save a life in the future.
As Peter’s testimony serves devastatingly to demonstrate, for a small group of drug users, their use can become highly problematic for them and their families. These people need health systems and responses that reduce the harm that can be caused by drug use and, should they be willing, end their substance use.
The contributions of all of the families that we heard from have helped lead us to this report—families, parents and friends whose experiences of caring and advocating for their loved ones provide often heart-wrenching insight into the complexity of navigating care systems, especially within a medico-legal system under which merely the possession of drugs is not only heavily stigmatised but criminalised.
This legislation and this report offer us the opportunity to fundamentally change the experience of people who use drugs and those who care for them in our city. Decriminalisation is an important step in ensuring that those who need help for their drug use feel safe to access it. The vision it sets for the government to meet is one in which drug users have dignity, are given support when it is required, and are allowed to live their lives without fear of needlessly winding up in the criminal justice system.
The current punitive, criminalisation model of responding to drug use only serves to drive those who need it away from health services and supports. As the peak body representing organisations that work every day with people who use drugs, the expert consensus view shared by ATODA on behalf of these organisations was simply this:
Decriminalisation can reduce drug harms and saves government spending on the criminal justice system. The current system artificially constrains the life chances and diminishes the social and economic contributions of those who are marked with criminal records solely for drug use. It also impacts their families’ wellbeing and can entrench disadvantage for future generations.
We know that people who use drugs are not a homogenous category. They certainly are not treated as a homogenous category. Discrimination in the applicability of the
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