Right: a familiar sight in Australia's major cities: arrests for drunkenness and drug use are said to be increasing. While the personal use of alcohol is not a criminal offence, personal drug use is.
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Background information
Background
(Most of the following information is summarised from the Wikipedia entry titled 'Drug liberalization'. The full text of the entry can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_liberalization#Drug_decriminalization)
Drug decriminalisation calls for reduced control and penalties compared to existing laws. Proponents of drug decriminalisation generally support the use of fines or other punishment to replace prison terms, and often propose systems whereby illegal drug users who are caught would be fined, but would not receive a permanent criminal record as a result. A central feature of drug decriminalisation is the concept of harm reduction.
Drug decriminalisation is in some ways an intermediate between prohibition and legalisation, and has been criticised as being "the worst of both worlds", in that drug sales would still be illegal, thus perpetuating the problems associated with leaving production and distribution of drugs to the criminal underworld, while also failing to discourage illegal drug use by removing the criminal penalties that might otherwise cause some people to choose not to use drugs. However, there are many that argue that the decriminalisation of possession of drugs would redirect focus of the law enforcement system of any country to put more effort into arresting dealers and big time criminals, instead of arresting minor criminals for mere possession, and thus be more effective.
Portugal is the first country that has decriminalised the use of all drugs, meaning anyone caught with any type of drug for personal or private consumption will not be imprisoned. Spain and Italy have recently followed Portugal's example.
Drug liberalization movements in specific countries
Australia
Some Australians have been advocating for the legalisation of cannabis since the early 1970s with the Cannabis Research Foundation of Australia, established in Victoria. Other active groups in the later 1970s included the Australian Marijuana Party and the Marijuana Petition Organisation. During the 1980s an independent Australian chapter of NORML was established and became the main force in the Cannabis Campaign until the early 1990s.
In the 1990s, HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) was established and continued the fight for law reform. In 2010, HEMP qualified as a political party intending to field candidates in elections where possible. In 2011 the Cannabis Campaign seemed to experience a renaissance in Australia with many new groups appearing in different States.
Since 1985 the Federal Government has run a declared 'War on Drugs' and while initially Australia led the world in the 'harm-minimisation' approach, they have since lagged.
Australia 21
In September 2011, Australia 21 (a contemporary issue and lobby group) appointed a steering group that included a number of Australian experts on illicit drug policy. Their task was to work towards an Australian review of the policy of prohibition instigated in 1953, which would also explore what might be involved in moving to a different approach to illicit drugs in Australia.
The group recommended a high level exploratory roundtable on the topic "What are the likely costs and benefits of a change in Australia's current policy on illicit drugs?"
The one day roundtable discussion hosted by the University of Sydney on 31 January 2012 included 24 former senior state and federal politicians, experts in drug policy and public health, young people, a leading businessman, legal and former law enforcement officers.
The report on this discussion was launched on Tuesday, 3 April at a press conference in Parliament House Canberra.
Argentina
In August, 2009, the Argentine Supreme Court declared in a landmark ruling that it was unconstitutional to prosecute citizens for having drugs for their personal use - 'adults should be free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state'. The decision affected the second paragraph of Article 14 of the country's drug control legislation (Law Number 23,737) that punishes the possession of drugs for personal consumption with prison sentences ranging from one month to two years (although education or treatment measures can be substitute penalties). The unconstitutionality of the article concerns cases of drug possession for personal consumption that does not affect others.
Brazil
In 2002 and 2006 the country went through legislative changes, resulting in a partial decriminalisation of possession for personal use. Prison sentences no longer applied and were replaced by educational measures and community services. However, the 2006 law does not provide an objective means to distinguish between users and traffickers. A disparity exists between the decriminalisation of drug use and increased penalties for selling drugs, punishable with a maximum prison sentence of five years for the sale of very minor quantities of drugs. Most of those incarcerated for drug trafficking are offenders caught selling small quantities of drugs, among them drug users who sell drugs to finance their drug habits.
Canada
The cultivation of cannabis is currently illegal in Canada, with exceptions only for medical usage. However, the use of cannabis by the general public is tolerated to a certain degree and varies depending on location and jurisdiction. A vigorous campaign to legalise cannabis is underway nation-wide.
In 2001, the Globe and Mail reported that a poll had found that 47% of Canadians agreed with the statement, 'The use of marijuana should be legalised' in 2000, compared to 26% in 1975. A more recent poll found that more than half of Canadians supported legalisation. However, in 2007 Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government tabled Bill C-26 to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to create a more restrictive law with higher minimum penalties for drug crimes. Bill-26 died in committee after the dissolution of the 39th Canadian Parliament in September 2008, but the Bill has subsequently been resurrected by the Canadian government twice.
Czech Republic
On December 14, 2009, the Czech Republic adopted a new law that took effect on January 1, 2010, and allows a person to possess up to 15 grams of marijuana or 1.5 grams of heroin without facing criminal charges. These amounts are higher (often many times) than in any other European country, making the Czech Republic the most liberal country in the European Union when it comes to drug liberalization (apart from Portugal).
Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia)
In April 2009, the Mexican Congress approved changes in the General Health Law that decriminalised the possession of illegal drugs for immediate consumption and personal use, allowing a person to possess up to 5g of marijuana or 500 mg of cocaine. The only restriction is that people in possession of drugs should not be within a 300 meter radius of schools, police departments, or correctional facilities. Opium, heroin, LSD, and other synthetic drugs were also decriminalised. Their possession will not be considered as a crime as long as the dose does not exceed the limit established in the General Health Law. Many question this, as cocaine is as much synthesised as heroin, both are produced as extracts from plants. The law establishes very low amount thresholds and strictly defines personal dosage. For those arrested with more than the threshold allowed by the law this can result in heavy prison sentences, as they will be assumed to be small traffickers even if there are no other indications that the amount was meant for selling.
Guatemalan President Otto P‚rez Molina and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos proposed the legalisation of drugs in an effort to counter the widely perceived failure of the War on Drugs, which was said to have yielded poor results at a huge cost.
The Netherlands
The drug policy of the Netherlands is based on two principles: Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal matter and a distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs exists.
Cannabis remains a controlled substance in the Netherlands and both possession and production for personal use are still misdemeanours, punishable by fine. Cannabis coffee shops are also illegal according to the statutes.
However, a policy of non-enforcement has led to a situation where reliance upon non-enforcement has become common, and because of this the courts have ruled against the government when individual cases were prosecuted.
Portugal
In 2001, Portugal became the first European country to abolish all criminal penalties for personal drug possession. In addition, drug users were to be targeted with therapy rather than prison sentences. Research commissioned by the Cato Institute and led by Glenn Greenwald found that in the five years after the start of decriminalisation, illegal drug use by teenagers had declined, the rate of HIV infections among drug users had dropped, deaths related to heroin and similar drugs had been cut by more than half, and the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction had doubled. However, Peter Reuter, a professor of criminology and public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, while conceding that Portuguese decriminalisation met its central goal of stopping the rise in drug use, suggests that the heroin usage rates and related deaths may have been due to the cyclical nature of drug epidemics.
Norway
On June 14, 2010, the Stoltenberg commission recommended implementing heroin assisted treatment and expanding harm reduction measures. On 18 June 2010, Knut Storberget, Minister of Justice and the Police announced that the ministry is working on new drug policy involving decriminalisation following the Portugal model, which will be introduced to parliament before the next general election. Later, however, Storberget has changed his statements, saying the decriminalisation debate is 'for academics', instead calling for coerced treatment.
United States
Throughout the United States there has been pressure for the legalisation of marijuana use and distribution for medical reasons. Organisations such as NORML are working to decriminalise possession, use, cultivation, and sale of marijuana by adults, even beyond medical uses. In 1996, 56% of California voters voted for Proposition 215, legalising the growing and use of marijuana for medical purposes. This created significant legal and policy tensions between federal and state governments. Courts have since decided that state laws in conflict with a federal law about cannabis are not valid. Cannabis is restricted by federal law.
Uruguay
Uruguay is one of the few countries that never criminalised the possession of drugs for personal use. Since 1974, the law establishes no quantity limits, leaving it to the judge's discretion to determine whether the intent was personal use. Once it is determined by the judge that the amount in possession was meant for personal use, there are no sanctions.