December 27, 2001

Sydney Morning Herald

by Geesche Jacobsen

The amount of cannabis that people under 18 can carry for personal use without being charged has been halved under legislation that came into force last week.

Previously, police had a discretion to caution or charge under-18s who were carrying up to 30 grams of cannabis for personal use.  Now they may carry no more than 15 grams of the drug for personal use - the same maximum amount as adults.

The scheme was an initiative of the 1999 Drug Summit to keep young people out of the criminal justice system.  By August, under the scheme, police had cautioned almost 4000 people in 16 months for possessing cannabis.

The Greens have labelled the change a backward step, which will criminalise young people unnecessarily.

But Attorney-General Bob Debus said most cautions were issued to young people caught possessing amounts of cannabis "at the lower end of the scale".

"Taking into account the practical reality that police use the cautioning power for relatively small amounts of cannabis only, it does not make much sense to have on the statute books a power to caution for the larger amount," he said.

Police will retain some discretion "in exceptional circumstances" to caution young people possessing more than 15 grams of cannabis.

Mr Debus said this could happen "where it would be in the interests of rehabilitation and appropriate in all the circumstances to do so".

But Greens Upper House MP, Lee Rhiannon, said the changes to the law ran counter to the arguments the Government had used when introducing the higher limits originally.

Ms Rhiannon said criminalising the possession of cannabis did not help the rehabilitation of young people, for many of whom the possession of small amounts was a minor offence and a common occurrence.

"This amendment will lead to young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system in a way that is not sensible, fair or just," she said.

"It exposes the fact that cannabis cautioning was only ever an aberration by the Government."

Ms Rhiannon said that, while the Government was boasting that the cautioning system was keeping young people out of jail and the courts, it was introducing tougher laws which criminalised young people.

Mr Debus also rejected Opposition criticism that the higher limits for under-18s had allowed drug dealers to use them as couriers.  He said police had previously used their discretion to charge young people carrying small amounts of drugs if officers believed they were dealing in drugs.

The law, which came into effect last Friday, was passed by Parliament just before the summer break.

Hours later, it legalised the use of sniffer dogs to detect drugs in certain places, ruled illegal by a Sydney magistrate last month.