BEATTIE TO RECONSIDER DRUG LIMIT

The Beattie Government is under fire over its proposed drug
rehabilitation programme with experts warning proposed laws would
serve as an "escape clause" for traffickers.

Australian National Council on Drugs head Major Brian Watters said he
thought it was a misprint when he read criminal convictions would be
waived for people caught with up to 500g of marijuana.

"I support diversionary programmes, but if the Premier wants to avoid
traffickers using this as an escape clause then I think it would be
worth reducing the allowable amount," he said.

Premier Peter Beattie yesterday stood firm over the planned
"diversionary approach" to drug enforcement but said he would consider
revising the threshold amount under which people would be eligible for
the programme.

The Queensland Cabinet last week approved the plan allowing
Queenslanders to escape conviction for possessing the drug if they
admitted their guilt and agreed to undergo rehabilitation.

This approach, being adopted to varying degrees around Australia, will
extend in Queensland to people caught with up to 500g of marijuana
estimated to carry a street value of about $4000.

The amount would be the equivalent of more than 1000 "joints". The
planned threshold level is more than 20 times that which would incur a
trafficking conviction in the ACT where marijuana is
decriminalised.

But Mr Beattie yesterday said drug traffickers would not be able to
use the new laws to escape conviction and rehabilitation would be
offered on a "case-by-case" basis.

Mr Beattie said the new laws were drafted on the back of definitions
for marijuana possession in the existing Drugs Misuse Act, introduced
by the Bjelke-Petersen government in 1987.

"The 500g threshold level for possession has been around since Joh's
day and anything above that amount is trafficking," he said.

"To some extent the argument about limit is irrelevant, it has to be
for personal use, nobody selling or trafficking will be eligible for
the programme and that is a matter easily determined on the facts of
the case."

The "diversionary approach" to drug enforcement is part of a national
strategy being adopted by all states and territories under a Council
of Australian Governments agreement signed in June.

The agreement follows a renewed push by Prime Minister John Howard
earlier this year to tackle a worsening drug problem in Australia.

Drug Arm national director Dennis Young also expressed his surprise at
the amount of marijuana in which a person can be caught possessing and
still escape conviction.

A spokesman for Mr Howard said the level of drugs that determined
eligibility for the programme was at the discretion of the states.