Call for softer approach to 'social' drug dealers

The Law Commission's recommendations for reforming drugs laws received support from health campaigners yesterday.

The commission yesterday tabled in Parliament a major review of the 35-year-old Misuse of Drugs Act.

The report calls for a more lenient approach to "social dealers" and those caught with small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use, saying that issuing caution or infringement notices should be an option available to police.

The report's 144 recommendations include making the possession of drug utensils legal, offering offenders early access to drug treatment and replacing the Act with one administered by the Ministry of Health.

It questions the effectiveness of criminal sanctions against drug users who caused no harm to anyone else or who suffered from mental illnesses and addiction.

Law Commission president Justice Grant Hammond said the law needed to continue to impose heavy penalties on those who profited from the manufacture and sale of illicit drugs, but also needed a more holistic focus on individual drug offending.

There was clear evidence treatment of drug addiction could be cost-effective, he said.

"Some studies estimate that for every $1 spent on addiction treatment, there is a $4 to $7 reduction in the cost associated with drug-related crime."

The proposed new Act would lead to better communications between the law enforcement, justice and health sectors, he said.

"We need to recognise that the abuse of drugs is both a health and a criminal public policy problem," Justice Hammond said.

Commission deputy president Dr Warren Young said the commission was not recommending decriminalisation.

"We are recommending a sort of graduated response through cautions to education and treatment and then prosecution."

The Government must now consider the report, but Justice Minister Simon Power has already indicated it is unlikely to find favour with the Government.

In February, he said he was prepared to listen to submissions, but Prime Minister John Key had made the war against P and other illegal drugs a key part of his leadership and "there's not a single, solitary chance that, as long as I'm the minister of justice, we'll be relaxing drug laws in New Zealand".

Those in the drug education, treatment and policy world greeted the commission's report with joy yesterday.

Ross Bell, of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, which works to reduce the harmful effects of legal and illegal drugs, said the proposed sweeping changes would drag New Zealand into the 21st century.

The Law Commission's review was thorough and the final result well considered and thoughtful. It demanded an equally considered response from the Government, Mr Bell said.

Prof Doug Sellman, from the National Addiction Centre at the University of Otago, said the general thrust of the report was in the right direction - making drugs not just a criminal issue but also a health one.

Blair Anderson, a Christchurch campaigner seeking the legalisation of cannabis, said the recommendations were disappointing and did not go far enough.