POLICE CHIEF - GET TOUGH ON CANNABIS

WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan demanded a toughening up of
the State's liberal cannabis laws yesterday, arguing that offenders
should no longer be offered the luxury of a small fine as Alan
Carpenter defended his Government's approach to cannabis users.

A day after the Australian Medical Association's WA branch called for
the controversial legislation to be rewritten, Mr O'Callaghan said
cannabis users who refused to take part in a drug education program
should face court.

He said those who chose to attend an education class rather than pay
the fine but then failed to show up should be prosecuted.

His comments came despite the Premier saying Mr O'Callaghan continued
to support the Government's position.

"I support the drug diversion program,'" Mr O'Callaghan said.
"However, in our submission to the Government's review of the Cannabis
Control Act we will state that we want it strengthened.

"We would propose to eliminate the option of taking a small fine and
instead give people the option of either going to court or attending
drug education classes.

"If people opt to attend the education classes and don't go within 28
days then it should trigger an offence and they should be
prosecuted."

Mr O'Callaghan said he supported the AMA's recommendation that the
Government introduce legislation requiring juvenile cannabis users to
undergo counselling, arguing that a weakness of the system was that
cannabis users aged under 18 were not eligible for an infringement
notice.

"It is very important that counselling is available to young people
who are found with drugs," he said.

Opposition spokeswoman on drug abuse Donna Faragher said
decriminalising cannabis had been a failed social experiment and the
Government's skewed policy perpetuated a myth that smoking cannabis
was harmless.

Mr Carpenter said cannabis use among teenagers aged 12 to 17 had
declined significantly since the policy was adopted. He said police
believed the policy was workable and was producing good results.
"We've put in place a policy which statistics indicate has resulted in
far fewer young people using cannabis," he said.

Mr Carpenter said the Government would not bow to the demands of every
interest group or the rhetoric of a particular sector, saying WA had
faced a huge problem in the late 1990s with drug abuse, heroin deaths
and drug-related crime.

"We put in place a series of policy measures which we believed would
improve that situation," he said. "Why would we head off in a
direction which would conceivably make things worse again?"

WA's peak drug sector body, the WA Network of Alcohol and Other Drug
Agencies, warned it may not be able to cope if participation in the
education program became a mandated requirement of cannabis offenders.

In its submission, the network said the cannabis education service
providers, all of whom are members of WANADA, would need an immediate
funding injection to deal with the extra workload.