Australia is not keeping pace with global best practice cannabis policy, a report from the public health research organisation the Penington Institute has found, with decriminalisation predicted to save taxpayers around $850m each year.
With more than 90% cannabis-related charges since 2010 being for personal use or possession offences, the Cannabis in Australia 2022 report, published on Thursday, found that criminalising people who use cannabis costs Australian taxpayers $1.7bn a year in law enforcement costs.
According to the report, 702,866 people have been arrested for cannabis-related offending in Australia since 2010, with nine out of 10 of these arrests for personal use or possession.
In his foreword to the report, John Ryan, the CEO of the Penington Institute, said while cannabis can have negative consequences including a risk of dependence for some people, it overall had a low harm profile.
“The demonstrated harms and enormous financial burden associated with Australia’s simplistic prohibition approach is much more harmful than the substance itself,” he said.
In the US and Canada, a regulated cannabis supply means the product’s potency and quality can be controlled, protecting consumers from criminal suppliers, the report said, while freeing law enforcement to concentrate on serious crimes.
Meanwhile, Australia’s cannabis industry was being hamstrung by onerous operational costs, excessive regulation, lack of policy clarity and insufficient government support, Ryan said.
“This inaction is causing serious social and economic harm across the board, from the legitimate Australian cannabis industry and medicinal cannabis patients through to taxpayers whose money is being wasted on an archaic and ineffective prohibition approach,” he said.
“It is time to pull Australia into the present and capitalise on the many and varied opportunities that a proper, regulated cannabis market affords us. It also makes clear economic sense, allowing for taxation schemes to direct critical funding into prevention and treatment efforts.”
According to findings from the national drug strategy household survey, last conducted in 2019, more people said they support the legalisation of cannabis than opposed it – 41% compared with 37%. Almost 78% of participants agreed that possession of cannabis for personal use should not be an offence.
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On Thursday, the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative published research that found most Australians using cannabis for medicinal purposes are using illicit cannabis, although numbers accessing prescription products have risen dramatically.
Published in the Harm Reduction Journal, researchers surveyed 1,600 people using medical cannabis between September 2020 and January 2021. The survey found 37% of respondents had received a legal prescription for medicinal cannabis, up from 2.5% in 2018.
Lead researcher Prof Nicholas Lintzeris said a number of benefits were identified in moving to prescribed products.
“People using illicit cannabis were more likely to smoke their cannabis, compared to people using prescribed products who were more likely to use oral products or vaporised cannabis, highlighting a health benefit of using prescribed products,” he said.