The Australian Capital Territory government will decriminalise the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs including heroin, cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine, becoming the first jurisdiction in the country to do so.
In announcing the reforms on Thursday, the ACT health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, said it was clear current laws had not worked.
Under the new laws, anyone found with an amount of drugs that falls within the threshold would be fined, but not charged with a criminal offence.
“We know from research and evidence around the world that criminalising drug users does not reduce drug use and that treating drug addiction as a health issue improves outcomes for everyone in the community,” she said in a statement.
The ACT decriminalised cannabis in 2020, with Stephen-Smith saying the government was leading Australia with its progressive approach to reducing the harm caused by illicit drugs.
But Jeremy Hanson, the deputy leader of the Liberals, the opposition party in the territory, said the reforms would make “society more dangerous”, echoing the views of senior police.
The Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, whose officers are responsible for policing the territory, told a Senate estimates hearing last October that the reforms could lead to the ACT being a hub for “narco-tourism”.
“You’ve also got the driving aspect, the community safety aspect, the misery that it causes,” Kershaw said. “It’s going to mean that organised crime will want to target this community in particular because they can move their product quite easily.
“It just makes it more difficult for us to combat the rise of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin use. They’re not recreational drugs.”
The decriminalisation bill was proposed by Michael Pettersson, a backbench MP in the Labor party, which is in government as part of a Labor-Greens coalition. Pettersson also introduced the cannabis decriminalisation legislation. The wider decriminalisation bill is expected to pass parliament, but it is unclear when it will become law.
Ten substances will be covered under the reforms, with the amounts allowed of each substance to vary. Some people found in possession of drugs will have their fines waived, or be able to attend an information session on drug harm reduction, or peer support or drug treatment service, rather than paying the fine.
The bill was subject to a parliamentary inquiry, which made 18 recommendations. The government delivered its response to the inquiry on Thursday, accepting eight recommendations, agreeing in principle with eight more, and noting one.
In its response, the government said it would also be reducing the maximum prison sentence for personal possession offences for all illicit drugs and committing to a review of the changes after three years of operation.
It would also list the drugs covered under the reform in regulation, rather than legislation, so that “it can be more easily amended to take account of changing trends in future”.
