Ms Fiona Wilson:

With respect to decriminalisation, we armed our police officers with cards which had information on health resources on them. Our members could hand them out to people when they came across an individual who they thought might benefit from that. Initially, our health authority wanted us to keep track of how many of those cards we handed out, and when and to whom. We refused to do that because we have learned from previous examples with our health authority that it will track that from a policing perspective, but is completely unwilling to provide us or the public with information about how effective those programmes are. That is another warning I strongly urge the committee to consider.

A health alternative is the way to go. There is no question in my mind that illicit drug use is a health matter and should be treated as such. If the committee is going to consider diversion to health, I strongly encourage it to ensure that health has some reporting mechanism so we know what is effective and if police officers are directing people to pathways of health, we know how often they are utilised, how successful they are and whether alternatives should be considered because certain pathways are not accessible, helpful or being utilised. In respect of the health authority, if people are being directed to pathways of health, which I think is the way to go, I strongly urge the committee to ensure there is some reporting mechanism so that can be scrutinised and people can be sure those health pathways are being used. Oregon had some experience with that.