Drugs, substance use and addiction

Problematic use of drugs and substances (including alcohol and tobacco) by individuals should be dealt with as a health issue. Using a criminal law framework to address substance abuse in the community exacerbates the potential harms to the individual and the community. 

The criminalisation of drug use disproportionately impacts on people experiencing poverty and minorities. People with drug or substance use problems should be treated with respect and dignity and have access to evidence-based treatments within a harm-minimisation framework. 

Pharmaceutical companies should be held accountable for promoting harmful and addictive treatments. 

The repeal of public drunkenness laws in Victoria, which were applied disproportionately to Aboriginal people, should be generalised to all states and territories.

What we think

1. Using a criminal law framework to regulate access to drugs and to address substance use in the community increases harm. 
2. Drug criminalisation creates a black market and hands a monopoly over the drugs trade to unregulated and often unsavoury networks and syndicates.
3. Drugs policy should be free of moralism or fearmongering, should be evidence-based, and guided by the principle of harm minimisation. 
4. Problems arising from the misuse of substances should be treated as health and welfare issues.

We'll fight to

1. Decriminalise the possession and non-commercial production and small-scale distribution of drugs for personal use.
2. Expand publicly funded high quality residential and non-residential withdrawal and treatment facilities. 
3. Legalise a regulated and taxed cannabis market for adults use, including clear content and potency labelling, and licensed consumption venues.
4. Expand medically supervised injecting facilities.
5. Establish publicly funded pill testing services.
6. Immediately release and expunge the criminal records of all current prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug crimes including personal use, possession and non-commercial production.
7. Campaign against public drunkenness laws throughout the country which are used disproportionately against Indigenous people.
8. Encourage substitution therapy and other dignified treatments for persons seeking treatment for substance use disorders.
9. Redirect taxed revenue from cannabis sales to community programs that benefit groups disproportionately affected by criminalisation including Indigenous communities.
10. Fund research into the safe use of cannabis-based treatments and therapies, and other therapies based on stigmatised substances including ketamine and psilocybin.
11. Expand Medicare to cover evidence-based proven treatments.
12. Remove legal barriers to the establishment and funding of scientific research into drugs and drug-use disorders.
13. Oppose ‘war on drugs’ style law and order campaigns in relation to drug use in the community.
14. Establish needle and syringe programs in custodial settings.