Does this mean easy access to all drugs?
- Current models of legal regulation of drugs in Switzerland, Canada, USA do not mean easy access to all drugs. They are, in fact, distributed within heavily regulated markets. Legalisation of drugs would not mean universal access to all drugs. The current system of prohibition allows easy access to all drugs through unprotected and unregulated markets.
- Legal regulation would subject the drug trade to strict controls and oversight, which our current system fails to provide.
- Legal regulation would allow governments to make decisions about how, and to whom, drugs should be sold. These decisions currently rest in the hands of criminals.
- At the moment the only control is seizure and arrest, which encourages risk-taking and undesirable behaviour.
- Sales to minors would be restricted under a system of legal regulation. Criminals are unlikely to ask for ID since they already operate outside the law.
- As shown in the introductory summary, there are several ways to provide drugs, subject to strict oversight and regulation appropriate to their type. Few would argue that heroin should be sold in supermarkets.
- Drugs are already widely available and used in Australia. The 2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that almost 1-in-2 respondents aged over 14 (47%) have used illicit drugs in their lifetime, with cannabis being the most used (41%, around 8.8 million). Also, 13.5% of the Australian population aged over 14 have used cocaine at least once in their lifetime. People who use drugs do so by interacting with a supply chain that is illegal and unregulated, placing themselves at great additional risk.
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