Page 3697 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 October 1991
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spread of HIV. The danger now is a double one - that we allow ourselves to become complacent and that we allow our policies to stagnate. We must be prepared to have the courage to take that next step.
Mr Speaker, I would like to offer my thanks, firstly, to other members of the committee who have worked through very difficult issues and who have been tolerant of each other's views. There is a dissenting report in this report, but I think the nature of the dissenting report and the tolerance of the way it is written indicate that the same principles and the same concerns apply. There is a slightly different solution in Mrs Nolan's dissenting report, but I think the thrust of what she is saying comes through with the thrust of the report.
I would also like to thank the secretary, Ron Owens, for his absolutely untiring work in this most difficult area, as well as the people who presented us with information and who assisted us. Of particular note are Dr Greg Chesher and Dr Alex Wodak, who have lent their expertise and provided us with information. They are recognised worldwide as having particular expertise in this area. I draw particular attention to extra information that came in very late, after the report was already well under way, from Dr Chesher and which I have included in my preface. They are additional comments to a detailed chapter which sets out some medical risks.
Dr Chesher has explained very clearly the real risks to people who smoke both cannabis and tobacco. They are at greater risk than those who smoke either drug alone. The order of decreasing hazard is: Smokers of both drugs; tobacco only smokers; marijuana only smokers; and, of course, non-smokers. We are certainly very aware of the risks of smoking to anybody's health.
It should be said and made quite clear here that the use of drugs should be seen very broadly as a great difficulty in our society. The most disastrous drug that we are dealing with is tobacco, and the drug that is causing most problems in our society is probably alcohol. The tobacco drug is the killer drug and it is for that reason that I have moved disallowance of a gazettal notice by the Minister for Health, who has allowed advertising to be used to support the Prime Minister's XI cricket game in the ACT. That disallowance motion will, no doubt, come before the Assembly prior to that cricket match.
Mr Speaker, I believe that the recommendations in this report are yet another small step taking us in a direction of tolerance and understanding and the separation of the markets in drugs. The report provides for the decriminalisation of the personal use of marijuana. I should point out that the personal use of marijuana, as we see it, should remain as currently defined in the Drugs of Dependence Act. I say that it is a small step because the Drugs of Dependence Act has already been operating for a
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