Police try drugcaution scheme

By Darren Gray of the Sunday Age,
medical reporter

FIRST offenders caught using or possessing small quantities of
cannabis will not be prosecuted in a special trial that has just
begun in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

The sixmonth pilot program, developed by the Victoria Police,
enables police to issue a Cannabis Caution Notice to people
caught using or possessing up to 50 grams of cannabis.

The program is designed to keep minor drug offenders out of the
criminal justice system and to encourage them to seek drug
counselling and rehabilitation.

The pilot scheme allows police to issue cautions to people when:

the offender had no prior drug offences;

no other offence was involved;
the amount of cannabis did not exceed 50 grams;
the cannabis was for personal use only;
and the offender admitted to the offence and consented to being
cautioned.

The program will be evaluated after its sixmonth trial and could
be extended statewide, according to the Health Minister, Mr
Rob Knowles.

"Any development that looks at ways that we can get people to
focus on the adverse impact and what needs to occur in terms of
improving outcomes I think is to be welcomed," Mr Knowles
said.

Professor David Penington, who chaired the Premier's Drug
Advisory Council inquiry last year, has welcomed the move.

"It's at least trialling in one police district the program which, in
effect, we wanted to achieve across the state," he said.

"A great deal of police time and a great deal of court time is
devoted to people in possession of relatively small amounts of
drugs."

Last year Professor Penington unsuccessfully argued that use
and possession of a small quantity of marijuana (no more than
25 grams) should not be an offence.

"This initiative really moves in exactly the way we hoped they
would move that is, to deal with that as a behavioral and health
problem, to give those people an official warning but then to
refer them for counselling and advice and maybe treatment," he
said.

The acting chief superintendent, Mr Peter Macievic, said the
program was an extension of other cautioning programs. A
warning program for minor shop stealing offences had been in
place for about 10 years, he said.

He denied the trial was a softening of the police's attitude to
drugs.

"I think it's probably a practical approach. Because we are only
talking about a small number of offences, a certain type of drug
offender, and I think it probably makes sense," he said.

Under the new scheme, people will receive a maximum of two
cautions. Cannabis Caution Notices can only be issued by an
officer of the rank of sergeant or above.

In 199697 provisional statistics show 9850 people were
charged with possession and or use of illegal drugs. Most
charges were for cannabis use.

Police have had the ability to caution juveniles in possession of
cannabis for many years, but this scheme allows adults to
receive a caution too.

The Drug Advisory Council also recommended that the
cultivation of up to five cannabis plants per household for
personal use be permitted.

At the time the chief commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie,
condemned the fiveplant recommendation as a "nonsense", but
mooted a cautioning program for firsttime marijuana offenders.

Mr Macievic would not reveal how many caution notices had
been issued since the trial began two weeks ago.