Pubdate: Tue, 03 Apr 2012
Source: Sunday Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2012 The Sunday Times
Contact:  http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/438

MARIJUANA USE 'FELL AFTER DECRIMINALISATION' IN WA UNDER GALLOP GOVERNMENt

CANNABIS use in Western Australia fell markedly after it was
decriminalised - contrary to comments by Police Minister Rob Johnson
that it had grown "extensively".

Mr Johnson told reporters today that when former WA Labor premier
Geoff Gallop decriminalised the smoking, possession and cultivation of
small amounts of marijuana in 2004, he presided over a surge in drug
use.

"We became known as the cannabis capital of Australia and we saw
cannabis use grow extensively," Mr Johnson said.

"If you start decriminalising it, what you see is an increase in
use."

Mr Johnson was responding to a think tank of prominent Australians
that said the so-called war on drugs had been lost, and tougher laws
were doing more harm than good.

However, statistics from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey
show cannabis use among West Australians fell from 13.7 per cent in
2004 to 10.8 per cent in 2007.

The figure rose to 13.4 per cent in 2010, after the Liberal-National
government came to power in 2008, but was still below the 2004 figure.

Mr Johnson recriminalised possession of 10g or more and cultivation of
cannabis last year, introducing some of the nation's toughest penalties.

National Drug Research Institute deputy director Simon Lenton said
there was "no evidence" to back Mr Johnson's comments.

"The real story here is that cannabis use has been declining across
the country and in WA - there's no evidence that it increased at all
among the general population or amongst surveys of schoolkids," he
said.

Mr Lenton said the rise in cannabis usage figures between 2007 and
2010 could be explained by a statistical anomaly, after the telephone
component of the survey was removed, increasing the number of positive
responses.

"People are less likely to admit to drug use on the phone than they
are in a sealed questionnaire," he said.

"They changed the methodology, so if you look across the board -
across the country - there's been an increase."

Mr Lenton said only about three per cent of cannabis users were
"busted each year by police", meaning education was a better deterrent
than harsher penalties.

He said laws newly introduced in WA under which parents could get a
mandatory sentence of 12 months' jail for growing just one marijuana
plant if it was proved to harm a child were "detrimental".

"There is clearly indication that applying a criminal penalty to a
minor cannabis offence doesn't reduce rates of use in the general
community, or even people who are apprehended," he said.

"People going to jail for a minor cannabis offence is clearly not in
the interests of them or their children."
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MAP posted-by: Matt