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Speaker 1: The Drug Foundation is calling for all drugs in the

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Speaker 1: country country to be decriminalized. It's released a report this

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Speaker 1: morning into fifty years of our drug laws and deduced

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Speaker 1: they don't work. Meth and cocaine use has doubled in

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Speaker 1: the last twelve to eighteen months and there were around

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Speaker 1: three fatal overdoses happening every week last year. Fiona Hutton

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Speaker 1: is Associate professor at Victoria University's Institute of Criminology. In

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Speaker 1: its investor now, hey, Fiona, do you support decriminalization.

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Speaker 2: I do, yes, I do support decriminalization. Why well, I think,

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Speaker 2: as the Drug Foundation laid out in their report, what

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Speaker 2: we're doing right now is not working at all. It's

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Speaker 2: not achieved its aims Our Misuse of Drugs Act, and

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Speaker 2: we really need to do something different because what we're

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Speaker 2: doing is actually causing harm instead of stopping harm or

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Speaker 2: reducing harm, it's causing harm. Hell well, it's causing harm because,

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Speaker 2: as noted in the report, things like drug overdoses of

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Speaker 2: rising addiction hasn't really been properly addressed, Things like methanphetamine

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Speaker 2: use are causing real harm in our communities, and you know,

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Speaker 2: people are being criminalized and so on for minor offenses

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Speaker 2: like cannabis possession, which you know stays with them for

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Speaker 2: the rest of their lives. So there's a number of

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Speaker 2: harms from prohibition and drug policy, like our Misuse of

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Speaker 2: Drugs Act, and this you know, sort of evidence based

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Speaker 2: report really says, look, we need to do something different,

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Speaker 2: and I agree, and I think decriminalization would be a

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Speaker 2: good first.

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Speaker 1: Troublers British Columbia and Canada and Oregon in the States

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Speaker 1: both tried to decriminalize in the hope that it would

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Speaker 1: turn around exactly what you've just talked about. For example,

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Speaker 1: let's just say overdose. It's what they found, is it

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Speaker 1: actually went up.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think those that are really complex problems that

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Speaker 2: they have in those two jurisdictions, and a lot of

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Speaker 2: the problems are not necessarily to do with the fact

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Speaker 2: that drugs were decriminalized. It's to do with the problems

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Speaker 2: that are associated with drug addiction, things like homelessness, mental health,

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Speaker 2: structural factors.

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Speaker 1: Have the same problems here, which so we would have

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Speaker 1: the same outcome.

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Speaker 2: Well, no, I don't think so, because you're looking at

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Speaker 2: different sorts of drug issues in that context, and you're

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Speaker 2: looking at the problem on a much larger scale. And

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Speaker 2: don't forget that the problems in Canada and Oregon that

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Speaker 2: you're talking about, they were decades in the making and

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Speaker 2: decriminalization was just one of the tools to try and

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Speaker 2: help solve those problems. And the overdose problem, you know,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't linked to decriminalization. That's not why, you know,

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Speaker 2: to mean, there was all sorts of stuff around the

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Speaker 2: drug supply excuse me, sorry, and so on, and the

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Speaker 2: actual you know, the scale of the problem and so on.

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Speaker 2: So we haven't got that scale of problem here, so

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Speaker 2: we need to act before we do, you know. And yes,

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Speaker 2: we have similar problems. You know, mental health and addiction

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Speaker 2: are often linked and so on. So we need to act,

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Speaker 2: We need to do something, We need to do something different.

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Speaker 2: We need to make sure that we address these problems

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Speaker 2: before they get any worse. And I think as well,

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Speaker 2: an important point that the report makes, which I think

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Speaker 2: may speak to the issues that you just raised in

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Speaker 2: other jurisdictions. It's not just decriminalization that's going to make

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Speaker 2: a difference. There has to be you know, investment funding

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Speaker 2: in things like health treatment and other things to address

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Speaker 2: these kind of structural issues. And we've had, you know,

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Speaker 2: decades of underfunding in things like health and treatment services

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Speaker 2: and so on, which you know, we're sort of recognizing

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Speaker 2: with the Mental Health and Addiction Minister Matt Doucy and

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Speaker 2: the work that him and his colleagues are doing and

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Speaker 2: so on. So I think, you know, we need to

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Speaker 2: make you know, so decriminalization is not the pantacy for everything.

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Speaker 2: It's not the silver bullet. It goes much wider than that,

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Speaker 2: and we need to We've left it too long already, right,

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Speaker 2: so we need to make sorry to regul these problems.

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Speaker 1: I really have to get going. It's been drama in

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Speaker 1: the house. Fioda hasn't Associate professor at Victoria University Institute

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Speaker 1: of Criminology.

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