Attachment Files

PDF File | Report of a high level Australia21 Roundtable

Summary/Abstract

Australia Drug Policy review with a costs and benefits analysis of prohibition and the beneficial impact of policy change on healthcare, law enforcement and society.

Content

SEE ATTACHED PDF FOR FULL REPORT ================================= This report came out of a roundtable discussion in January on the topic “What are the likely costs and benefits of a change in Australia's current policy on illicit drugs?” Lots of good stuff in there. It's not a blueprint (like Transform has done), but a good call to debate, and a very strong condemnation of business as usual. In spite of the increasing evidence that current policies are not achieving their objectives, most policymaking bodies at the national and international level have tended to avoid open scrutiny or debate on alternatives. [...] The biggest winners from the current policy are those in league with organised crime and those corrupted by it. [...] “What we want governments to do is feel quite uncomfortable about the predicament they have put us in. They are running a system that is causing a whole lot of harm. Until they begin to start looking for the solutions we are not going to make progress. When they begin looking for the solutions we are in the position to suggest ideas. It is the government that has the problem. Our task is to place it on their agenda.” – Hon Michael Moore [...] International drug prohibition has, until now, been maintained through international treaties and conventions, spear-headed by a US “War on drugs”. The recognition that this war has been comprehensively lost is leading to an international rethink about prohibition and about these treaties and conventions. [...] “For us, when we lost our son, we did not seek sympathy, we saw the injustice and craziness of our drug laws. We wanted people to focus on that, not on our suffering.” – Marion and Brian McConnell are founding members of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform. [...] “Many people who think of themselves as the beneficiaries of prohibition are really net losers. Parents are much more at risk of losing their children under prohibition than they would be if there was some kind of system where we had some measure of control over illicit drugs.” – Hon Professor Peter Baume [...] “I think the idea that prohibition kills is an important one. So my plea is how can we get governments to buy into this issue? I think they need to see that what they are doing and not doing, is causing a lot of the harms. At some stage they have to be held accountable for allowing this to happen.” – Hon Professor Geoff Gallop [...] By maintaining prohibition and suppressing or avoiding debate about its costs and benefits, it can be argued justifiably that our governments and other community leaders are standing idly by while our children are killed and criminalised.