New South Wales government members have suggested cannabis reform is inevitable in the state after a parliamentary inquiry found the current regime is discriminatory because people with means can obtain medicinal cannabis legally, while others are criminalised.
The NSW upper house inquiry released its landmark report into the effectiveness of cannabis regulation last week. The recommendations to decriminalise and consider legalisation were backed by six of the seven committee members – including Labor, Liberal and crossbench Legislative Council members. One Liberal member voted against the recommendations.
The committee – chaired by the Legalise Cannabis party MLC Jeremy Buckingham – recommended the Minns government immediately axe the maximum two-year custodial sentence for people found with a small quantity of marijuana and instead replace it with a fine.
The report said NSW should “decriminalise personal use and possession of cannabis”.
The government should then “engage in a staged process of reform and review and consider legislating to legalise the use of cannabis by adults in a manner that eliminates the illicit market so far as is possible and creates a safe, regulated and accessible statewide market for legal cannabis”.
The Labor MLCs Stephen Lawrence and Cameron Murphy, who were part of the committee, said decriminalisation and potential legalisation of cannabis was inevitable because all MLCs except one voted for the recommendations.
Lawrence, who moved for the recommendations to be included in the report, said the cross-party support showed “the community has moved on from some kind of shock-horror reaction to cannabis”.
“The evidence in the inquiry shows the advantaged have designed a system where they are allowed to smoke their easily obtained medicinal cannabis, often for recreational purposes, while we punish the rest sometimes harshly,” the Labor MLC told Guardian Australia.
“The only question is how soon Australian governments actually lead on the issue, not if. The report offers a pathway that can be careful, gradual and bipartisan.”
The premier, Chris Minns, spoke in favour of legalising cannabis in 2019 while in opposition but has backpedalled since winning office, saying the government doesn’t have a mandate to do so and it is not on Labor’s agenda.
A spokesperson for the attorney general this week said the government was considering the report’s recommendations.
The committee found that while the widespread availability of medicinal cannabis in NSW via a prescription from a GP was welcome, it was facilitating widespread “non-medicinal” use of cannabis.
“This highlights the inequitable and arbitrary nature of the current criminalisation of cannabis, whereby the criminal status of a person now depends on their capacity to obtain a prescription from a doctor,” the report stated.
The inquiry found that irrespective of the merits of decriminalisation and legalisation, the maximum two-year prison penalty for being found in possession of a small quantity of marijuana was “absurd, draconian and antiquated”.
“This degree of criminalisation, which has persisted for many decades, is irrational and an affront to the community’s sense of justice and can be remedied by the parliament in a way consistent with the policy position of the government.”
The committee found the presence of cannabis in a person’s system did not necessarily indicate a person was impaired.
The report stated that criminal regulation of cannabis had not achieved its aim of reducing use, and that decriminalisation in other jurisdictions had not led to a material increase in use.
Murphy told Guardian Australia the “two-tier” justice system when it came to cannabis use was of significant concern.
“I believe there is widespread community support, reflected in the committee, to remove personal use quantity cannabis possession offences from the criminal law,” he said.
