Page 2084 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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taking among our young people. They do not fear cannabis use but they do fear the continuing abuse of pills and alcohol. In an article in the Canberra Times of 5 September this year, Claire Caesar of ADDI said that many problematic drug users would prefer to use cannabis but its cost is prohibitive. Workers in the field believe, to quote the same article, that it is the very nature of the illicit status of drugs that causes the problems. I quote from that article:
People cope with pressures in a variety of ways, but drug use in the privacy of a home offers fewer problems than most methods. Until we give people clean drugs in the quantities they require and monitor it then the black market and all its associated problems will continue to thrive. Taking it away only makes it more dangerous, and we have seen what happens when "grass" goes out of people's reach: they use pills and when they become scarce or expensive they sniff glue or petrol.
In the same article the police admitted that their brief was to catch dealers and distributors; and once this Bill is passed they can concentrate more fully on this task, as supplying and dealing will continue to be illegal. I again quote the article mentioned, and this must be ascribed to the author, Ian McPhedran:
The bottom line is that no drug is good for you, either physically or mentally, but to allow large numbers of our young people to expose themselves to cheaper, dangerous substances while those who can afford it indulge a heroin habit or argue the pros and cons of marijuana over a glass of red wine is a sad reflection on the type of society the young are expected to inherit.
Many who say that criminal processes should be used against people who choose one type of drug, for example, cannabis, over another, for example, alcohol, are denying their own behaviour, as well as human nature. Personally, I feel that the main emphasis after this legislation is passed should be on putting in place real and effective education programs which do convey to users, medical practitioners, community nurses and health workers, and the public in general, the effects of this drug.
There is already an attempt to do this in the more general sense through the Life Education program for school-age children, but there still exists a gap in the understanding of many in the community on the use and abuse of all drugs. This week, for example, the Federal Government has launched a program to raise awareness of the abuse of prescription drugs in the wider community. Some 30,000 people are admitted to hospital each year because of the inappropriate use of legally prescribed medication. Indeed, what we need to address in our society is an overuse of all types of drugs.
By introducing this legislation to the Assembly my colleague Mr Moore is doing no more than implementing a policy objective from the platform of the Michael Moore Independent Group during the election campaign. As stated, our policy objective is to "decriminalise the possession of cannabis and cannabis products so that individuals might grow and use cannabis in small quantities". We know that a prohibitive approach to drugs policy is ineffective. This legislation enables the community in the ACT to choose a different path, not a radical path, to approach the issue of drug-taking in our society.
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