Criminalisation hasn’t reduced rates of use, supply, or harm from drugs. Instead, it drives people away from getting help when they need it. Yet our government continues to spend around ⅔ of its total drug budget on enforcement, draining money from prevention, treatment and harm reduction.
No ideological obsession with abstinence, or politically-motivated "war on drugs", is worth sacrificing more lives. I’m working towards a common sense approach to drug use.
Cannabis
The Greens support legalising cannabis. Under the watch of a government regulator, we would allow people to grow cannabis for personal use, or purchase a quality-controlled product from licenced retailers, as recommended by the Queensland Productivity Commission in 2020.
My Federal Greens colleagues have proposed a bill to legalise cannabis nationally, and I've launched a petition to the Queensland Attorney-General and Parliament calling on them to legalise cannabis and wipe previous related offences. You can sign our petition here.
While we work towards legalisation, I’ve also moved amendments to create a defence to drug driving charges for medicinal cannabis patients. Under my amendments, it would still be illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol or any drug, but patients would no longer be criminalised just for having THC in their system (which can be detected days or even weeks after use).
Drug checking, including pill testing
Since I was elected I’ve been pushing for drug checking (which includes pill testing) in Queensland. In 2024 Queensland finally became the first Australian state to allow pill testing (following the ACT), with trials at festivals like Rabbits Eat Lettuce and new fixed-site pill testing run by service providers at QuIHN in Bowen Hills. This is great news, but we need funding security to ensure this service isn’t suddenly cut off.
We have clear evidence that pill testing saves lives. This should be a permanently funded service at AOD premises, festivals and in other places where drugs are commonly used, including Safe Night Precincts like Fortitude Valley and Surfers Paradise.
Other harm reduction measures
I’m also pushing for population-based planning that properly funds drug and alcohol services, instead of limiting funding to what meagre amount Government thinks it can spare each budget.
We need to fully fund:
- Clinically Supervised Injecting Centres
- Opioid replacement therapy
- A properly resourced rollout of the take-home naloxone program in Queensland, to end opioid overdose