Fiona Patten is seeking to make illicit drug possession an educational matter rather than a criminal matter.
Patten will introduce a new bill to hit state parliament next week, decriminalising all drugs for both users and dealers.
Under the proposed plan, anyone holding a small possession or having used illicit drugs will be referred to a drug education or treatment program.
Compliance would also involve a mandatory notice letter from Victoria Police.
Patten said the drug policy reform would help the state combat addiction, saving lives and reducing harm to Victorians.
“Current drug law is killing innocent people and causing untold other harm, wasting billions of taxpayers’ dollars, fuelling organised crime, and squandering scarce health and law-enforcement resources, and the members of the Victorian parliament know it,” Ms Patten said.
“That’s not an assertion, it’s a fact proved by domestic and international experience.”
Read more at. https://www.triplem.com.au/story/victoria-s-radical-plan-to-decriminalise-illicit-substances-194710
