Legalising drugs 'needs the right health and education'

The NSW Police Association's Tony Bear, responding to inquiry questions around decriminalising drugs, said cannabis should be legalised if there was a guarantee to adequately invest in support infrastructure and tight regulations.

"Put the resources in place, and then see how that works for a couple of years so that you've got the data that you are looking for to move to the other drugs," he said.

"A lot of governments decriminalise and then forget to put the money into education, into the health outcomes, and the police have to cop the 24-hour seven days a week call-outs to the overdoses."

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes remains unconvinced by the decriminalisation push, saying the legalisation of tobacco hasn't made other sources go away.

"Most importers of narcotics also trade in illicit tobacco," he said.

Experts on Thursday said prohibition was not working and the Commonwealth should explore other ways to tackle the problem of illicit drug use.

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's Rachel Sutherland said drug-related hospitalisations and deaths have increased over the past decade, with deaths relating to the use of amphetamines reaching record highs in 2020.

"These harms have been increasing under the current prohibitionist framework so it's clear that we need to change how we respond to drug use," Dr Sutherland said. 

Drug Policy Modelling Program director Alison Ritter said Australian authorities have already been practising a form of decriminalisation and said evidence suggests decriminalising hard drugs over cannabis because those users are more likely to need a health response.

The goal of drug decriminalisation is not to reduce use but to target the related harmful consequences, Prof Ritter said.

But the Police Association of NSW remains opposed to the decriminalisation of harder drugs.

"Our position is that whilst there is no safe taking of a drug, it should be illegal for your own good," Mr Bear said.

Overseas evidence shows a reticence for people to call police for help if their family and friends know there is a history of drug use, but the Drug Policy Modelling Program's Michala Kowalski argues police should not be removed entirely from people's lives.

"It's more about ... making sure that they're responsive and linking into health services and taking out the legal harms that would follow," Ms Kowalski said.

The inquiry also heard drug detection dogs should not be deployed at music festivals, but police should still play a role in keeping patrons safe.

"(People are) using drugs that are harder to detect instead of drugs that might be less harmful in a festival setting but easier to detect," Ms Kowalski said.

She referred to studies showing a visible police presence and its perceived drug focus can deter people from seeking help from officers in an emergency.

The dogs were there to protect festival-goers, the police association's president Kevin Morton said.

"There are opportunities for organised crime to use young females, young males - bulk them up with drugs - then once they get into that festival, distribute them throughout the rest of the festival," he said.