Nicholas Cowdery, a former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, told an NSW parliamentary inquiry on August 1 that action was needed now to decriminalise cannabis use.
Cowdery, a former president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) said it had long believed that criminal law is “ill-suited to deal with drug use in the community”.
Every year in NSW more than 700,000 people “from all walks of life” use cannabis, Cowdery said.
“There is consistent evidence that decriminalisation doesn’t encourage cannabis use or increase cannabis taking in the community,” he said, adding that decriminalisation “may have the opposite effect” as more people access advice, support and treatment if they need it.
People with problematic drug use needed a health and social support response rather than a criminal justice one, he added.
Commenting on NSW Labor’s recent drug summit announcement, he acknowledged that it was promising to see an election promise being honoured but emphasised that “we need action now”.
The NSWCCL expressed concern over the “unacceptably high level of First Nations people in custody” and the over-policing of First Nations communities, highlighting that this situation will not change without a new approach to drug laws.
In NSW, the average imprisonment rate for First Nations people stands at 1839 per 100,000 individuals — nearly 14 times higher than that of non-First Nations people.
Statistics from last year indicate that NSW police are more likely to press charges for minor cannabis offences against First Nations individuals: 43.9% of non-First Nations people received cautions, compared to only 11.7% of First Nations people.
“The appalling overrepresentation of First Nations people in the criminal justice process, compared to the general population, is a crisis that successive governments have relegated to the too-hard basket,” said Cowdery.
“Burdening the courts with these charges is a waste of public resources and has a detrimental impact on thousands of First Nations individuals and their families in NSW each year.”
Cowdery stressed that “closing the gap on this appalling disparity” requires leaders to prioritise harm minimisation and community-led solutions.
“The community sees little benefit from attempts to reduce the prevalence of a substance that remains widely available, despite its illegality. An anomalous situation exists where cannabis, an arguably less dangerous drug, is illegal while more dangerous substances like tobacco and alcohol are legal and regulated.”
The NSWCCL referred to the latest national drug strategy household survey, which found that support for the legalisation of cannabis has increased to 45%, and the proportion of people who believe that possession of cannabis should not be a criminal offence has reached an all-time high of 80%.
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