THE use of ice should be decriminalised and party pills tested so revellers can get high without dying, the Greens have said, with a Queensland senator claiming the move would “keep our kids safe”.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters will tell a ­national drug summit next month that drug addicts should be able to use without fear of being charged. They also want law enforcement resources ­diverted to rehab services.

Senator Di Natale is also calling for testing of party pills such as ecstasy so youngsters can pop them “safely”.

Senator Di Natale outlined the radical proposals during a visit to Queensland’s drug capital the Gold Coast yesterday, with Senator Waters.

He described the plan as “rational and sensible”, while Senator Waters said the plan would “keep our kids and our friends and everyone in the community safer”.

But the plan has been slammed by anti-drugs campaigners, who say it sends a message that “drugs are OK”.

It comes as Australia grapples with the ice epidemic, which former prime minister Tony Abbott last year described as Australia’s worst drug scourge.

The National Ice Taskforce found Australians were among the world’s biggest users of crystal methylamphetamine, with the number of addicts doubling to more than 200,000 in the past eight years.

Ice has been blamed for a surge in violent assaults, including on hospital staff and emergency service workers, and police and lawyers say the powerful and highly addictive drug is behind a rising number of crimes.

Senator Di Natale visited Queensland as part of a national tour to meet with drug experts ahead of a federal parliamentary drug summit on March 2.

He said arresting drug users was not working and believes decriminalisation would help combat the drug scourge.

Senator Di Natale said criminal penalties were stopping drug addicts from seeking treatment and taxpayer funds were being spent on policing rather than rehabilitation.

“If we could say to every ice user in the country ‘come forward, you’re not going to be charged, but you’ll get instant access to a (rehabilitation) bed’ ... that’s the question we need to be asking as a society,’’ he said. “What we are doing at the moment isn’t working. It’s a policy approach that’s just failing us.’’

Senator Di Natale said he favoured the approach taken by Portugal, which decriminalised drug use in 2001. Dealers are prosecuted, but addicts caught with small amounts of drugs are sent to a “Dissuasion Commission” – made up of health and legal experts – who can hand out rehabilitation referrals, small fines or cautions.

Drug use and drug-induced deaths in Portugal have reportedly reduced since the policy was introduced.

Senator Di Natale said the Greens also supported calls to test ecstasy pills for toxins so users could get high, but “don’t die”.

But Drug Free Australia executive director Jo Baxter said decriminalising drugs, especially ice, “sends completely the wrong message”.

“It sends a message that drugs are OK,’’ she said.

“Drugs are illegal for a reason – because they’re dangerous. When you send an unsafe message like the Greens are proposing, you put young people’s lives on the line.’’

Healthy Options Australia executive director Dr Dennis Young said Australia had a big enough problem with legal “drugs” – alcohol and tobacco – without decriminalising ­illicit ones.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/greens-propose-decriminalisation-...

I would almost vote for the greens on this policy alone.

Greenswin - convince me.
It won't take a lot.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Feb 19^th, 2016 at 8:37am:



amazing.....my sons partners younger brother is due out of jail this month... after 7 years...he is now brain damaged from drugs...he will be sent home.. [where else]..and round the corner are the people that deal the drugs... but thats ok...who really cares?????...he is a useless human being now.. he and a lot of others.... in fact I would say quite a lot of our homeless men and women have a drug problem...

and thats the reason they are homeless...but again dont let that stop anyone from making it legal...

maybe the likes of sprint and WALLY and Larrisa should do the tour of the homeless streets and drug dens and hospitals.. maybe aged care where I know for a fact they put anyone who is badly brain damaged by drugs....maybe even visit with some of the families that have been left to deal with it all........


do this I INSIST! before you make any wild decisions....make sure you see the WHOLE PICTURE

... wrote on Feb 19^th, 2016 at 8:45am:


So you are all for this decriminalisation of ice and other illicit drugs, are you?

cods wrote on Feb 19^th, 2016 at 8:45am:


There's a guy who I see quite often up at our local shopping centre in a special motorised wheelchair with a carer. He's only in his early 30's, but he is crippled. I thought he'd been in a car or motorbike accident or something like that. No - he used ice for too long and one day he overdosed and his brain was crippled with seizures, leaving him totally unable to function independently. I mean, he can't even hold a pen, let alone write with one. He needs carers to feed him, bathe him, toilet him, dress him and push him around everywhere. He needs constant, 24/hr care and is living in a nursing home where he neighbours are in their 80's and 90's. Anyone who thinks that illicit drugs like ice or heroin or even marijuana should be legalised ought to spend a day with someone like that guy. Or spend a day with the families of victims of a coward punch who have been left caring for their brain-damaged loved one (if they're lucky) or who have had to bury them instead when they died.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Feb 19^th, 2016 at 9:10am:


I'd change most, if not all of the existing drug laws, but no necessarily the same way the greens would.

cods wrote on Feb 19^th, 2016 at 8:45am:


Cods - you are saying "Drugs do harm to society"

So do I .

I am saying 'the war on drugs' has been lost for decades.
Other ideas have proven effective overseas.

Lets do that.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Feb 19^th, 2016 at 8:37am:

Armchair would prefer to see our kids die as a result of prohibition.
Prohibition has always proven to be useless.
Kids will take ecstasy and other drugs if they are legal or illegal, at least if they are legal we can ensure they are safe for consumption.
It's a no brainer, unless you have no brains.