Pubdate: Mon, 31 Oct 2005
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005sThe Australian
Contact: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus_letters.htm
Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35
Author: Jeremy Roberts
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

'STAMP OUT DOPE' TO TACKLE PSYCHOSIS

MARIJUANA users should be treated like cigarette smokers and told to
"quit for life" if Australia is to tackle the rising incidence of
drug-induced psychosis.

A drug conference heard yesterday that the fashionable strategy of
"harm minimisation" was not working as greater numbers of people
suffered from mental illness.

Acting magistrate Craig Thompson called on governments to wind back
the decriminalisation of marijuana and impose "coercive
rehabilitation" based on abstinence for people addicted to drugs.

He said it was "totally incomprehensible" that the laws had evolved so
people could be fined for smoking a cigarette but cautioned for
marijuana use.

"So many are coming before me suffering drug-induced psychosis where
marijuana and crystal methamphetamines are the main causes," Mr
Thompson told the Adelaide conference.

"In NSW, you can stand on a railway platform smoking a cigarette and
get a $500 fine," he said.

"But under harm minimisation, the first two times a person is found
smoking cannabis they will get cautions."

Mr Thompson has been a magistrate in NSW for 23 years, and has served
in several drug awareness organisations including three years as
president of Parents Reaching Youth Through Drug Awareness.

He spoke yesterday to about 100 social workers, drug addiction
counsellors and experts on illicit drugs at the People's Drug Summit
in Adelaide, organised by South Australian independent MP Nick Xenophon.

The conference heard that Australia led the countries of the OECD in
the use of amphetamines and was near the top in marijuana use,
according to a 2004 UN report.

Mr Thompson's criticism comes in the wake of two landmark reports into
Australia's mental health system and the crisis that the highly
addictive crystal methamphetamine known as "ice" was causing mental
health and hospital emergency departments.

Ian Hickie, one of the authors of the Not for Service report by the
National Mental Health Council of Australia released this month, said
that the evidence now seemed conclusive that use of cannabis and
amphetamines were wrongly thought of as harmless "party drugs".

He said they contributed to psychotic mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia and to non-psychotic complaints including anxiety and
depression.

The federal parliamentary secretary for health, Christopher Pyne, has
blasted the state and territory systems of on-the-spot fines for
possession of marijuana, claiming that "all states and territories
need to toughen up their laws".

A report on the amphetamine market in Sydney found last week that
"ice" was among the most addictive drugs available, and caused an
11-times greater chance of a psychotic episode.

The study found ambulance and police officers and hospital emergency
departments faced hazardous working conditions in dealing with
amphetamines-affected patients.

South Australia was the first state to decriminalise marijuana
possession - in 1987 - and has the most lax fines.

But state Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said that laws for
cultivation had been toughened, forcing growers and anyone in
possession of more than one plant to front court.

Fines for possession of marijuana were introduced in the ACT in 1992
and the Northern Territory in 1996, while Victoria and Western
Australia implemented a system of cautions for minor marijuana
offenders in 1998. Last year, Western Australia also decriminalised
the use of marijuana. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake