AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL

COUNCIL ON DRUGS
 ANCD Membership 2007-2010
Chair:
• DR JOHN HERRON – ANCD Chairperson

Executive members:
• COMMISSIONER TONY NEGUS – Australian Federal Police
• PROFESSOR MARGARET HAMILTON – Former Chair, Multiple & Complex Needs Panel, VIC
• MR GARTH POPPLE – Executive Director: We Help Ourselves, NSW
• A/PROF ROBERT ALI – Director, Clinical Services: Drug & Alcohol Services Council, SA
 ANCD Membership 2007-2010
• MR DAVID CROSBIE – CEO, Mental Health Council of Australia, ACT
• MAGISTRATE JEFF LINDEN – Magistrate, NSW
• PROFESSOR RICHARD MATTICK – Director, National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre
• PROF TONI MAKKAI – Dean, Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
• MR DAVID MCGRATH– Chair: Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs
• PROFESSOR IAN HICKIE – Brain and Mind Institute
• MS SHEREE VERTIGAN– Australian Secondary Principals Association
• MS TAMARA MACKEAN – Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health, Uni of WA
• MS COURTNEY MORCOMBE – Ernst & Young
• JOSEPHINE BAXTER – Drug Free Australia
• A/PROF TED WILKES – National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
• DR DENNIS YOUNG – Executive Director: Drug Arm, QLD
Advisors:
• Mr Simon Cotterell – Department of Health & Ageing
• Supt Tony Biggin – Victoria Police (Police Commissioners Committee Rep)
• Ms Donna Ah Chee - Central Australia Aboriginal Congress
• Mr Nick Heath - Hobart City Council
 Advisory structure for the
National Drug Strategy
PRIME MINISTER

MINISTERIAL COUNCIL ON DRUG

STRATEGY

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL ANCD/IGCD JOINT INTERGOVERNMENTAL

COUNCIL ON DRUGS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON DRUGS

ASIA PACIFIC DRUG OF NATIONAL INDIGENOUS DRUG

ISSUES COMMITTEE SUBSTANCE AND ALCOHOL COMMITTEE

NATIONAL
EXPERT
ADVISORY
PANEL
www.ancd.org.au
 Of Substance
National Drug & Alcohol Magazine

www.ofsubstance.org.au
 Australia’s Response

Australia’s
National Drug Strategy
Harm Minimisation

Supply Demand Harm

Reduction Reduction Reduction
 Australian drug use trends
Drugs used in the past year, Australia, 1993-2007

National Drug Strategy Household Survey, 2007

 Number of accidental deaths due to opioids among those
aged 15 - 54 years (1988 – 2005) in Australia

Australian Bureau of Statistics

 Value of treatment purchase

Rydell et al (1996)

Program Source Interdiction Domestic Treatment

• country Programs Enforcement
Focus

Cost of reducing 783 366 246 34

consumption of drugs
by 1% ($ million/year)

Cost relative to 23.0 10.8 7.3 1.0

treatment

Provided by NDARC
 HIV prevalence in injecting drug users

World Health Organization Western Pacific Region

 Return of NSP investment
• Total investments (2000-2009) = $243 million
– Estimated HIV cases prevented = 32,050
– Estimated HCV cases prevented = 96,667
• For every $1 invested in NSPs, $4 was saved in
healthcare costs
• For every $1 invested in NSPs, $27 was saved
in health care costs and lost productivity

Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing

 PORTUGAL – Case Study
On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that
decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the
new legal framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not
“legalized.”

Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are
still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are
deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are
removed completely from the criminal realm. Drug trafficking
continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense.

Ref: Cato Institute

Conclusion
None of the fears of Portuguese decriminalization has come to fruition, whereas
many of the benefits predicted by drug policymakers have been realized.

While drug addiction, usage, and associated pathologies continue to rise in many EU
states, those problems have been either contained or measurably improved within
Portugal since 2001.

By removing the fear of prosecution and imprisonment for drug usage, Portugal has
dramatically improved its ability to encourage drug addicts to avail themselves of
treatment. The resources that were previously devoted to prosecuting and
imprisoning drug addicts are now available to provide treatment programs to addicts.

Those developments, have dramatically improved drug related social ills, including
drug-caused mortalities and drug-related disease transmission although it is noted
that treatment is not voluntary.

Drug policymakers in the Portuguese government are virtually unanimous in their

belief that decriminalization has enabled a far more effective approach to managing
Portugal’s addiction problems and other drug-related afflictions.

Ref: Cato Institute

 Australia – Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative

• In Australia the number of people in prison has continued to rise.

• A significant proportion of prisoners have substance misuse and dependence

problems that contributes to their criminal activity.

• The average annual cost for a prisoner ranges up to $80,000 per year

• The average annual cost for treatment in a residential rehabilitation centre is

less than $30,000 per year,

• The average annual cost for non-residential treatment such as methadone

and buprenorphine, counselling etc is even less

In response to increasing international and national evidence on the benefits and

effectiveness of treating offenders with drug use problems rather than imprisoning
them in 1998 the Australian Government announced the National Illicit Drug
Diversion Initiative as one of its major investments to address drug use
 Police cautioning
or apprehension

Diversion Criminal
justice/court
(either court or
community based
system)

Treatment
Non
Assessment
compliance
Drug education

Partnerships between Law Enforcement, Health, Government & NGO

 Diversion Initiative Details

• Participation in the Drug Diversion Initiative is not compulsory -

offenders are given the option of appearing in court, or choosing to
undergo assessment for the purposes of receiving treatment for their
drug problem.

• If offenders choose to undergo assessment, the diversion process

becomes compulsory in order for them to expiate their offence. The
treatment episode will not be more onerous than the equivalent court
obligations.

• The initiative is premised on drug users ―expiating‖ their offence by

engaging in treatment and rehabilitation as recommended by their
assessment. One effect of ―expiation‖ is that often no criminal
conviction is recorded for that particular offence.
 Some Diversion Program Results
• The saving of 18,000 hours of police time, the saving of $400,000 in police costs
and an estimated saving of $800,000 for local courts just from the Cannabis
Cautioning Police Diversion Program in New South Wales. In just 3 years of
operation;

• Participants in the NSW MERIT program (a court based diversion program)

being far less likely to re-offend than those who did not complete the program;

• Conservative cost estimates of the NSW MERIT program suggested that more
than twice the amount spent was saved;

• Queensland participants in the police illicit drug diversion program reporting

increased employment and improved physical and mental health;

• Victorian Drug Court participants reporting full-time employment increasing

from 11% to 25% after six months;

• South Australian Police Diversion participants reporting a 40% decline in drug

related offending with similar declines being reported across the country.
 Drug prevention strategies
Drug prevention strategies: Drug prevention in
the family

Drug prevention strategies: Drug prevention in

the school setting

Drug prevention strategies: Drug prevention in

the community

http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/druginfo/fact_sheets/drug_prevention
 Barack Obama: Rolling Stone Interview
"Anybody who sees the devastating impact of the drug trade in
the inner cities, or the methamphetamine trade in rural
communities, knows that this is a huge problem. I believe in
shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more
on a public-health approach...

The point is that if we're putting more money into education, into
treatment, into prevention and reducing the demand side, then
the ways that we operate on the criminal side can shift. I would
start with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. The notion that we
are imposing felonies on them or sending them to prison, where
they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of
thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on
track in their lives — it's expensive, it's counterproductive, and it
doesn't make sense.―
 Albert Einstein

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more

complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of
genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the
opposite direction."

Confucian Proverb

―Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way

and expecting a different outcome‖
THANK YOU

www.ancd.org.au