One of Australia's most senior police officers has warned lawmakers in Aotearoa attitudes on drugs and their decriminalisation may need to shift as the problem grows.
As part of the documentary Patrick Gower On All The Drugs, available now to watch on ThreeNow, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) police head Neil Gaughan said lawmakers may need to look at other ways to deal with those caught with drugs.
Gaughan has nearly four decades worth of policing under his belt.
In October this year, the ACT became the first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise illicit drugs in small quantities for personal use, including the likes of meth and heroin.
On January 31, 2020, cannabis was decriminalised, removing penalties for those caught in possession of the drug so they could get support for their habit without fear of being put through the justice system or end up with a criminal record.
Homeowners in the ACT are allowed to legally own 2 cannabis plants, but not grow it under a light. However, trading in cannabis seed is considered "against the law".
"I think a health approach to this is probably more efficient because the criminal justice approach hasn't worked," Gaughan said.
"I've been in policing 38 years and I think it's about time we thought about things differently. It's the reality, it shouldn't be clogging up our criminal justice system with those people.
"We don't want a 20-year-old kid, who's made a mistake in relation to having two or three pills on themselves having a criminal record and then we actually force them to stay down that path on the criminal justice system."
On the question of whether decriminalisation would stop the demand for drugs, Gaughan told Gower that was "the $1 million question".
"To be honest with you, there's a school of thought that says 'yes' and there's a school of thought that says 'no'. Some people suggest that because we decriminalise it, we're going to create a bigger market - I'm not necessarily convinced that's the case. We need to test it."
It's an opinion shared by Australian MP Michael Pettersson, who first introduced the bill in September 2018 to legalise the possession and personal use of small amounts of cannabis in the ACT.
He told Gower says there's "no real gain" in locking people up for being caught with smaller amounts of drugs.
"We've sent many young people to prison and given them criminal convictions for no real gain," said Pettersson.
"We send them to prisons that are filled with drugs - let that sink in for one second - if we can't keep drugs out of our prisons, we can't keep drugs out of our society.
"We need to accept that the drugs are here to stay."
