Submission to the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill

The Salvation Army is generally supportive of the provisions of this Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill. As a provider of a relatively large network of addictions treatment centres and services, we are strongly supportive of a health-centred or therapeutic approach to working with people who use drugs.

However, there are some aspects of this Bill and the processes surrounding this Bill that we are concerned about, or that we seek further clarification about. We will elaborate on these below. Summarily, these issues are:

• The need to revisit the Law Commission’s Misuse of Drugs Act Review from 2011, particularly all of the key recommendations detailed in that report. This speaks of a coordinated and consistent approach, rather than piecemeal amendments to the Act;
• The limited consultation undertaken during this process;
• The sufficiency of the financial preferred ($1.15 million p/a for 4 years) option to account for newer drugs and/or complex related needs for users of synthetics;
• Questions around the Police discretion around public interest;
• Other aspects of the regulatory options detailed in the Bill.