Okays Chief Police Commissioner’s Plan To “Caution” Rather Than Arrest Marijuana Users
The chief police commissioner for the Australian state of Victoria, Neil Comrie, announced that he is likely to order police to “caution” rather than criminally charge people found in possession of small amounts of marijuana. The plan drew immediate praise from Professor David Penington — director of the State Government’s Drug Task Force — who said that many young people find marijuana prohibition “hypocritical.”
“We know that alcohol abuse causes far more deaths [than marijuana],” Penington said.
Under the new system, individuals will receive a warning from police for possessing marijuana. Individuals may receive no more than two cautions, must have no prior criminal convictions for drug offenses, and agree to being cautioned, the Australian Associated Press reported.
Presently, three Australian states have implemented policies decriminalizing the personal use of marijuana. Federal statistics indicate that one-third of the population have tried the drug.
“A ‘War on Drugs,’ which is in effect a war on drug users, can never succeed, as the traffickers just have too many ways in which they can brings drugs into the country or manufacture them,” Penington said. Penington himself recommended that the government decriminalize marijuana in 1996 as head of Premiere Jeff Kennett’s advisory council on drug reform, but the state failed to endorse the measure.
State Opposition leader John Brumby, said that Comrie’s administrative decision demonstrates Kennett’s failure to provide leadership on the drug issue.
“It is an abject failure of leadership on Premiere Kennett’s behalf that we have to have the chief commissioner of police in this state making that decision because the Premiere lacked the courage to do it,” he said.
Comrie said that he will issue a final decision in two months. He said that he will also consider whether to implement such a policy concerning the possession of other drugs.
“My position is that I have a totally open mind to it,” he said.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.
