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'Stamp out dope' to tackle psychosis
Jeremy Roberts | Australian | 10/31/2005

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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reggie_the_dog

this judge seems to suggest that it is terrible that cigarette smokers can get a fine but marijunan smokers get a caution. So is tobacco illegal in Australia now?

vladimir

how is pot taking all the blame for people going crazy from crystal meth?

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teufelfisch

Once again, pot becomes the scapegoat.

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Lothar121

I've had to drink pepto bismol as I went through the Australian articles to see which was newsworthy. They are blaming decriminalization without any evidence that it is causing a significant increase in use. These articles just make me go "wow".

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fight4rights

Sounds like their laws surrounding tobacco use are too harsh, not that those concerning marijuana is too lax.

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Stewie Gr1ff1n

I think marijuana and ciggs should switch place personally