Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2001
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/187
Author: JOHN FERGUSON

PLAN FOR LEGAL MARIJUANA

MARIJUANA smoking would be decriminalised, fines cut and users able to grow 
10 plants without conviction under secret recommendations to State Parliament.

The Herald Sun has obtained a taxpayer-funded report, one of the most 
detailed undertaken into marijuana in Victoria, revealing how to soften the 
state's drug laws. The report backed civil penalties as small as $50 for 
repeat marijuana smokers and said growing 10 plants or less constituted a 
small amount for personal use.

It also suggested the Government could make money by taxing marijuana 
production if greater controls were introduced over supply of the drug.

The 240-page report was handed to Parliament's powerful Drugs and Crime 
Prevention Committee shortly before Steve Bracks became Premier. Only a few 
copies are believed to have been printed.

The report has been kept secret despite the investigation by the respected 
National Centre for

Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse.

Key recommendations include:

SMALL quantities of cannabis for personal use to attract civil rather than 
criminal penalties.

CAUTIONING for initial possession offences, with repeat offenders facing a 
two-tier fine system of either $50 or $150.

ABOLISHING the offence of use of cannabis, but maintaining the offence of 
possession.

MAINTAINING tough supply penalties, but automatically removing use offences 
from the police record after two years.

MEASURES to prevent smokers facing conviction on a cannabis charge as a 
result of not paying fines.

Under existing laws, people caught with less than 50g of marijuana receive 
up to two cautions.

A third breach leads to court and a possible criminal conviction with a 
fine of up to $500 for personal use.

Failure to release the report to the public has angered some committee 
members, who believe their work was wasted.

The committee travelled overseas and collected thousands of pages of 
evidence after Professor David

Penington was called by the Kennett government to head inquiries into the 
drug problem.

Dr Penington was re-hired under Mr Bracks.

One MP familiar with the marijuana report said it was a disgrace so much 
taxpayers' money was wasted.

"We are talking about millions of dollars and an enormous amount of effort 
for some crucial information that never saw the light of day,"

he said.

Prominent Melbourne barrister Ian Freckleton and the former NSW Director of 
Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, were consulted over the planned law 
reforms.

The National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse is one 
of the country's most respected research bodies examining legal and illegal 
drugs.

The centre, based in Western Australia, argues there is evidence marijuana 
is not as harmful as some other drugs.

Its preferred model, the centre claims, would not lead to wider use of 
marijuana.

"While cannabis is not a harm-free drug, it is much less harmful than many 
other currently illicit drugs and indeed some which are licit," the report 
argued.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart