A Liberal senator has painted an ominous picture of what drug decriminalization could mean for Canberra, warning the ACT will become Australia’s “drug capital” with motorcycles taking over and people flocking to the highways for the “festive lifestyle’.
Shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash made the claims on Thursday as she tried to overturn the territory’s decriminalization law with a senator’s bill, but was rejected by Labor and the Greens.
Small amounts of a range of drugs, such as heroin, ice, cocaine, MDMA and psychedelics, have been decriminalized in the ACT, allowing police to issue a fine rather than prosecute users through the criminal justice system.
Senator Cash told the Senate the area would become a magnet for drug tourists traveling the Hume Highway “hoping to experience the ACT’s party lifestyle”.
This would lead to an increase in addiction, crime and overdoses, she said.
Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has painted a bleak picture of what Canberra could become under drug decriminalization laws
‘As the Deputy Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police … has said, if the police see someone doing a line of coke – and guess what, you can do about 15 lines now – historically they may have intervened, they’re probably going to do not. up to now.’
Senator Cash also claimed the new laws could extend beyond Australian shores.
“So the question has therefore been raised as a result of these ACT laws: can Australian citizens now carry ice on ships in international waters facing nothing more (than the) threat of a $100 fine?” Senator Cash told the Senate.
“Well, I thought before you decriminalize you might actually want to know the answer to that.
‘Have (ACT Chief Minister) Andrew Barr and (ACT Health Minister) Rachel Stephen-Smith now unwittingly created a cruise ship drug charter?
“I guess I thought you wanted an answer to that before you went down this road. What an absolutely absurd situation.’
ACT Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson, who led the decriminalization bills, said there was no evidence the reforms would lead to the “outlandish claims the Liberals are making about drug tourism”.
ACT Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson, who led the decriminalization bills, said there was no evidence the reforms would lead to the ‘outlandish claims the Liberals are making about drug tourism’ (stock image)
“If Liberal politicians were to poke their heads out of Parliament House, they would see first-hand the astonishing harm reduction work already underway in the ACT,” he told AAP.
‘My advice to holidaymakers who want to avoid unpleasant elements when visiting Canberra is to avoid federal sitting weeks.’
Greens Senator David Shoebridge reiterated that the laws decriminalized the use but did not legalize it.
“Rather than treating people with addiction problems like criminals and putting them in jail – losing their jobs, their hopes and their futures and driving them further down the road to addiction – they will treat it as a health problem.”
Independent ACT Senator David Pocock said the shadow attorney general’s attempt to overturn a law passed by a democratically elected Legislative Assembly “cannot be seen in any other way than trying to restore self-government to our territory to hollow out’.
All parties in ACT politics have called on the federal coalition not to override its laws.
“It is a clear, undeniable violation of our territorial rights,” he said, adding that the coalition must respect the principles of democracy.
Drug policy should be the focus, he said, pointing to direct alcohol-related deaths rising year after year and legal drugs responsible for the vast number of opioid-induced deaths.
Small amounts of illegal drugs, such as cocaine, have been decriminalized in the ACT
“There are clear problems across the country when it comes to drug supply and drug demand, as well as problems with our systems for treating people with addictions and making them healthy,” Senator Pocock said.
The senator’s private bill was defeated by a vote of 33 to 27.