The former commissioner of the Australian Federal Police has doubled down on his calls for pill testing and the decriminalisation of recreational drugs, telling Q&A the nation’s policies ignore the everyday realities of drug use.
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Former AFP commissioner Mick Palmer, whose law enforcement career spanned three decades, used his appearance on the panel show to admonish national leaders who stand in the way of the harm reduction measures.
“On the evidence, I don’t know how you could refute it,” Palmer said of pill testing. “We went to Iraq on less evidence than we’ve got about pill testing.”
Palmer argued that current punitive approaches to drug use are demonstrably ineffective at stopping deaths related to drug use, and that a more nuanced approach is necessary.
“The evidence to me is absolutely overwhelming,” Palmer said of pill testing.
“I mean… I’m not suggesting for a moment we whack up a green light here… this is not about saying taking drugs is a good idea.
“But it’s about recognising the reality that in society, people do take drugs. And we’ve got to deal with that as effectively as we can, and as compassionately and humanely as we can.”
He likened approaches to drug use as similar to outdated laws around sweating in public, which have since been repealed due to their inefficacy.
“We’re talking here about a social habit,” Palmer said.
“Times change, people’s habits change, and you can’t criminalise it as a means to solve it, because you’re not going to solve it.”
Why is Australia failing to use the evidence-based approaches on drugs that have proven to be successful in Portugal? #QandA pic.twitter.com/KpARlWm0fu
— QandA (@QandA) February 18, 2019
Chief Superintendent Stuart Smith, the NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner, was more circumspect on the show about the likelihood of softening the laws around drug use. However, even he admitted that decriminalisation would likely free up police resources to be focussed on more serious offences.
“We’d solve a lot more homicide, I guess,” Stuart said.
That admission comes amid rapidly softening approaches to drug policies in many nations worldwide.
Discussing Portugal‘s once-radical decision to decriminalise the possession of small quantities of recreational drugs, Pill Testing Australia member Dr David Caldicott reminded the audience that Portuguese politician António Guterres, who pushed for the measures in his home nation, is now the Secretary-General of the UN.
The show represented a frank and open discussion of Australian drug policy after a tragic spate of drug-related deaths, and you can catch the entire episode HERE.
