Two years ago the ACT adopted a radical change to our drug policy by legalising the personal use of a wide range of illicit drugs. Has it worked?
The Canberra Liberals’ Deputy Leader Jeremy Hanson claims it is a failure. The reality is that the evidence is not yet clear.
Confounding factors often play a key role, and claims of increased harm need to be looked at in context. As independent MLA Thomas Emerson pointed out: “Without sufficient government investment in the health response to drug use, a void opens for increased calls for a criminal response from people like Jeremy Hanson.”
Labor has had more than two decades to implement a safe injecting facility. A lack of facility may also have had an impact on the issues raised. Emerson pointed out that Supervised Injecting Place Trial Act 1999 is still on the books. But no action has been taken to implement it since Labor came to power in 2001.
Emerson also referred in a speech to the Assembly that the report, “clearly shows the long-term economic benefits of investment in harm reduction”.
Full article here: https://citynews.com.au/2025/is-hanson-right-to-decry-the-drug-experiment/