DRUG LAW CHOICE FOR POLICE: KUCERA

POLICE would get the discretion to override proposed new cannabis
laws and charge people who possessed or cultivated small but
otherwise legal amounts of the drug, Health Minister Bob Kucera said
yesterday.

A task force appointed by Mr Kucera to advise on softer cannabis laws
has found that a problem with South Australian cannabis law is the
inability of police to use their discretion and charge people they
believe are selling the drug when technically not breaking the law.

"Police discretion should always override these issues in this State
on anything to do with drugs," he said in debate in the Legislative
Assembly on the new laws.

The task force report was given to the Government just before Easter
but it is understood its recommendations have yet to be considered by
Cabinet.

Mr Kucera has said the report would be made public once it has been to Cabinet.

The Opposition attacked the Government over its cannabis reform plans
yesterday. It said the changes amounted to decriminalisation of
possession and cultivation and would result in more people using the
drug.

Debate got personal, with Labor MLA Mark McGowan responding to
Liberal goading about whether he had used the drug - his answer was
that he never had.

Liberal leader Colin Barnett and Liberal police spokesman Matt Birney
refused to answer when Mr McGowan asked if they had used the drug.

In Canberra, an academic has called for police warnings to the public
over rogue batches of party drugs as part of a national illicit drug
testing program.

Sydney's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre information
officer Paul Dillon said the contentious move was designed to provide
good quality and potentially lifesaving information to recreational
users.

Under the program, drug users could get their drugs tested for
impurities or toxins at official mobile drug testing units parked
outside rave parties or nightclubs.

Mr Dillon said similar programs had been running successfully in Europe.