I've used psychedelic drugs sparingly but with great relish. Sometimes my occasional use of LSD, Mushrooms, and Ecstasy provided me transformational experiences of spiritual significance. Other times is was just bloody good fun.

I am one of the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have been charged with drug offences over the last 60 years of the drug prohibition.

I believe drug use is a legitimate personal choice in the same way that other dangerous activities are and that it is wrong for anyone to be prosecuted and persecuted for pursuing their natural curiosity about alternative states of mind.

I am one of the millions of Australians that say no to the laws that prohibit the use of psychoactive substances for pleasure and I am one of the millions of Australians that will never stop taking illicit drugs simply because it's against the law.

I mention these facts to this Parliamentary Inquiry, not in defiance, but because as politicians, as representatives of the people, it is your duty to take into account this testimony on behalf of the millions of other silent Australians that will never abide by the drug laws that criminalise them for an action they consider their inalienable right to pursue.

Like many Australians, I believe it is the right of a free individual to decide what pursuits make them happy so long as those pursuits do not impinge on the rights of another.

The current drug laws are unenforceable and any attempt to enforce them simply causes more harm to society and personal misery than the drugs ever could.

The fact that the drug laws are enthusiastically broken every day by millions of otherwise law-abiding Australians who risk criminal penalties to do so, must surely be taken into account by this committee.

The reality is that there is no law, no threat and no punishment that will ever stop millions of your fellow Australians using psychoactive drugs. I say this not to challenge the laws of the land or the authority of Parliament, but simply as an immutable fact that myself and at least a third of the population will never lay down and agree to surrender our sovereign right to put into our minds or bodies what we choose.

I don't mean to encourage others to do as I have done but urge this parliamentary committee to appreciate that the current drug laws are simply unenforceable. And as history demonstrates, any attempt to enforce unjust laws results in contempt for the rule of law, the police, and for the entire Administration of Justice.

I put the case on behalf of my fellow Australians that have been persecuted, prosecuted, demeaned, vilified and many who have lost their freedom pursuing an activity that just simply should not be a crime.

I am the son of a politician. My late father the Hon. Don Chipp who was once Australia's Minister for Customs with the responsibility for the national drug laws, often said, "No government can stop young people from using drugs – that is the job of parents".

I mention this because it may be your child or the child of a colleague who experiments with drugs. The harsh truth is that the drug laws affect us all by putting our children at risk of losing their future with a criminal conviction or even their life from a tainted batch of black-market drugs.

There is no authority on earth – not governments, politicians, police, or parents – that have ever been able to stop young people using drugs. The galling truth is that all the government can do is to make it as safe as possible when they do experiment with drugs.

I implore this committee to recommend repealing the criminal laws prohibiting drug use and replace them with administrative controls much like the regulations that manage the health risks of alcohol, tobacco, or pharmaceutical drugs.