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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Tuesday, 17 August 2004) . . Page.. 3695 ..

of which 97 per cent was borne by the ACT and other state and territory governments. We are foundering under the costs of these and other problems linked to illicit drugs.

Illicit drug problems are a key factor in the most costly and intractable problems facing this territory—issues such as child abuse, failures in the mental health system, crime and youth suicide. The commendable objectives of the government’s social plan will remain pie in the sky until these problems are dealt with.

I have mentioned in passing that the bill will seriously undermine the ACT’s expiation or SCON system for minor cannabis offences. It will do that by reducing from five to two the number of ordinary plants for which such a notice may be given and removing hydroponically grown plants so that not even one hydroponically grown plant would henceforth be eligible. That is another example of the government not acting in the interests of this territory.

The ACT introduced this system for several reasons. If a young person can obtain cannabis from his or her own plant or from a friend’s, it is less likely that such people who dabble in the drug will get sucked into a criminal subculture using more dangerous drugs. A criminal conviction can blight the employment prospects, travel plans and future generally of young people.

The SCON system was thoroughly reviewed in 2000 by a committee of this Assembly and it recommended that with some finetuning the system should continue. The government has ignored that Assembly committee’s recommendations. We have to ask: why has it done so and why is it now seeking to undermine the existing system?

According to the explanatory statement, the change:

… is warranted because the current amount of five plants is considered to far exceed an individual’s reasonable requirements for personal use, which gives rise to a serious danger that home-grown cannabis will be redirected for sale on the street. This is particularly a problem with hydroponically cultivated plants because they are generally much larger, have a higher concentration of THC and are capable of yielding up to five crops of cannabis per year.

Even if correct, those arguments do not address the reasons for the SCON system. Contraction of the scope of the expiation system will mean that more backyard and/or indoor user-growers will be caught up in the harmful processes of the criminal law. That is crazy. Studies have shown that the expiation system has not led to an increase in cannabis usage in the ACT or elsewhere in Australia. Moreover, cannabis usage is declining in the ACT and across Australia.

In a media release of 24 June, the Chief Minister said that he was acting on the advice of the Australian Federal Police. My officers were given a copy of that police advice. I am pleased to have received it and thank the minister for that. However, I am not convinced that this change is necessary.

The main fear that this change is meant to address is that the ACT will have an increase in the nodal system of cannabis growing that has been found in South Australia; that is, that a dealer organises a group of people to grow up to the limited number of plants in

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