Dr. Sharon Lambert:

One thing that is really important when we talk about drug use is that we often find it difficult not to think about our own personal opinions or views. The most important thing is that going back, we have a huge amount of information from our own jurisdiction and other jurisdictions. The big question for the State is why we have so much information and so little implementation. If we take cannabis as an example and look at it in respect of risk of harm to oneself and others, it is one of the least harmful substances. Codeine is more dangerous than ecstasy. The problem is that we have these moral judgments. There are things I feel uncomfortable with but that is irrelevant. When I feel uncomfortable that is based on my value system and how society has structured our views and opinions. It is actually very easy to do the right thing by just looking at what exists. We know that the criminalisation of people who use drugs has caused horrendous harm. It has not reduced the number of people who are using drugs. It has not reduced the amount of drugs that are coming into the country. In fact, it has made things much more dangerous. That is what the evidence shows.

Decriminalisation will be useful in some ways, and I want to say that those middle-class young people who get caught also deserve to not experience harm. With regard to people who want to use cannabis, that is a rights issue. What we need to do is look at the existing evidence, and the existing evidence is that criminalisation does not work. Decriminalisation reduces some of the harm but it will not go far enough. We probably need to look at the states that have introduced legalisation and where they have made mistakes. America is a very good example. It allowed the private market to control cannabis. That meant that people who live in communities where there is very little money cannot go into one of these places and buy cannabis that costs a lot of money. That left a black market. Sometimes the people who argue against these things will say we should look at America where legalisation made no difference to that illegal market. That is because we introduced a middle-class cause and took a middle-class approach to how we have designed our society without thinking about everybody who should be sitting around the table.