Select Committee Into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 TAKING THE PROFIT OUT OF DRUG TRAFFICKING AN AGENDA FOR LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA TO PROTECT THE COMMUNITY FROM ILLICIT DRUGS Interim Report - November 1997 Select Committee into Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 Select Committee Into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 TAKING THE PROFIT OUT OF DRUG TRAFFICKING AN AGENDA FOR LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA TO PROTECT THE COMMUNITY FROM ILLICIT DRUGS Presented by Mr Christopher Baker MLA, Chairman Laid on the Table of the Legislative Assembly on 27 November 1997 ORDERED TO BE PRINTED Chapter 1: Extent of inquiries Chapter 1: Extent of inquiries 1.1 Establishment of the Committee The Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia agreed to the establishment of the Select Committee into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 as a result of a motion that was moved by the Member for Joondalup, which was passed on 26 June 1997. The motion as passed reflects a bi- partisan consensus on the need to: · examine mechanisms to prevent and ameliorate illicit drug problems through the application of effective legal sanctions; and · to provide educational, health services and community support structures to assist those who are affected by the use or abuse of illicit drugs. When it was accepted that it would not be possible to comprehensively deal with the large range of issues encompassed by the two terms of reference, particularly the second term of reference, it was agreed to produce a number of reports seriatum. As the first such report this publication primarily deals with the first term of reference, which has been generally referred to as the “law and order” term of reference. The tabling of this report on 27 November 1997 satisfies in part the reporting deadline as stipulated in the original motion and provides an opportunity for the Select Committee to seek comment on the recommendations contained herein. The Select Committee notes that since its inception, due to ongoing responses by the Western Australian and Federal governments, several new initiatives under the terms of reference have been implemented, the most notable of which included a number of funded initiatives announced on 3 November 1997 by the Federal government as part of its Tough On Drugs campaign. The Select Committee has been granted an extension of time from the House to report on its second term of reference. The final reporting date is now 21 May 1998, which will allow the Select Committee to conduct further inquiries and receive additional evidence. 1.2 Context for this inquiry 1.2.1 Introduction The Select Committee was established following a number of unanticipated shifts in the nature and seriousness of illicit drug problems following the release of the report of the Premier’s Task Force on Drug Abuse in October 1995. The increased number of heroin caused or related deaths in the first half of 1997 was one such unanticipated ‘shift’. These ‘shifts’ were due largely to factors external to Western Australia and as such placed substantial demands on the State’s police service and other services, which were already experiencing a strained budgetary position. It is also noted that similar ‘shifts’ have confirmed in other Australian States and Territories. 1.2.2 The growing availability of heroin While more detailed discussion on the issue of heroin will be provided later in this report, it is helpful to acknowledge that prior to the onset of the mid-1990s heroin ‘epidemic’, heroin was a comparatively expensive commodity with an uncertain and predominantly low purity. Prior to this epidemic, which did not become readily apparent in WA until earlier this year, treatment agencies largely provided services to adult dependent heroin users in their late twenties to early thirties. There has been a world wide increase in the consumption of heroin throughout the 1990s, caused by the expanded cultivation of opium and increased heroin refining in South and Eastern Asia, resulting in a marked increase in supply and associated lower market values. This has been a major reason for a new generation of Australians having access to ample quantities of high grade, low cost heroin. This pattern of heroin availability was unexpected. At a State level this shift was manifested by an increase within a short period of time in the number of fatal overdoses caused by or related to the consumption of heroin, particularly in conjunction with other drugs such as Interim Report Page - 1 Select Committee into Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 alcohol and barbiturates. There has also been an unprecedented pressure placed upon the State’s methadone program, which was forced to institute a waiting list that reached more than nine months in waiting time. It would appear that a significant number of the young people who had previously used amphetamines as their preferred drug may have switched to heroin. This shift may have been brought about as heroin had become increasingly available at a lower cost since the early 1990s. It is also believed that another attraction of heroin for these young people was that it had ostensibly fewer deleterious psychological and physiological impacts compared to amphetamines. (As psychostimulants have a short duration of action, users typically become involved in intensive binges with attendant psychological disturbances, such as paranoia and a propensity to engage in violence and risk taking.) 1.2.3 New heroin chic The international character of the 1990s heroin ‘epidemic’ is confirmed from a range of material that has become recently available.2 There has been mounting evidence from other Australian jurisdictions, the United States,3 Canada,4 the United Kingdom and from European countries, of comparable trends in many of the indicators of drug abuse (eg mortality, morbidity and crime) associated with heroin. Accompanying this world wide increase in heroin use was a perception fostered through the media, in films such as Trainspotting and Pulp fiction, and in contemporary music, fashion and literature, that heroin had become a “chic” drug and was not as dangerous as was previously perceived to be the case. This shift in perceptions has been credited with removing some of the stigma and demonisation that had previously been associated with heroin use as being the “drug of losers” and “the drug of death”, which had generally been accepted since the 1960s. 1.2.4 Increased levels of crime Additional pressure was placed on law enforcement resources following rising levels of less serious acquisitive crime which involved younger people, as well as increases in a number of well publicised armed robberies that were attributed to people dependent on heroin. There was also pressure on the State’s corrective services, which were experiencing difficulties managing growing numbers of individuals sentenced for offences that were drug related. Increasing numbers of persons entering the State’s prison system with dependencies on heroin and other illicit drugs also increased the demand for these drugs in prisons. This changing profile of the prison population was reflected in reports of significant levels of illicit drug abuse by prisoners and the occurrence of a number of fatal heroin overdoses in metropolitan prisons. 1.2.5 The amphetamine problem As heroin abuse was generally perceived to involve an older group of individuals, the potential risk posed to young people from heroin may not have been readily identifiable. An intensive law enforcement and health education campaign that had been mounted in the early 1990s and specifically targeted at younger users has been credited with reducing the availability of amphetamine in this State. A unique feature of this amphetamine epidemic was that it was largely fuelled from a plentiful supply of drugs derived from local and interstate production by illicit laboratories. This can be contrasted with the source of supply of heroin, all of which is imported into Australia. The marked drop in the availability of amphetamines can be directly attributed to a number of factors. These include the impact of effective law enforcement activities, which caused the 2 “The new heroin. Global distribution threatens nations”. Dallas Morning News 13 July 1997 [http://www.dallasnews.com/] 3 Cf “The new heroin. It’s more treacherous for younger users”. Dallas Morning News 6 July 1997 [http://www.dallasnews.com/]; “The new heroin. It’s more treacherous for younger users”. Dallas Morning News 6 July 1997 [http://www.dallasnews.com/]; “The new heroin. Texas battle lines should be more clearly drawn”. Dallas Morning News 21 July 1997 [http://www.dallasnews.com/]; Ball LS, Timms E. “Heroin’s grip extends beyond the inner city”. Dallas Morning News 10 May 1997 [http://www.dallasnews.com/]. 4 Chief Coroner of British Columbia. The report of the task force into illicit narcotic overdose deaths in British Columbia. Vancouver, Office of the Attorney General 1995. Interim Report Page - 2 Chapter 1: Extent of inquiries closure of a number of highly organised illicit laboratories, and the introduction of tight controls over precursor chemicals. Of interest, there was a similar highly successful campaign in this State in the mid 1980s which involved the combination of law enforcement agencies and regulatory agencies concerned with monitoring and controlling substances and precursor chemicals that were utilised for producing black market morphine (“homebake morphine”). Given these drugs were produced locally, both the homebake morphine and amphetamine epidemics were effectively dealt with, as police and other regulatory agencies were able to effectively remove significant supplies from the market within a relatively short period of time. 1.2.6 Changing nature of law enforcement response Law enforcement agencies also realised that the 1990s heroin epidemic presented a number of difficulties. As the source drug is cultivated and refined in areas totally outside of local control, the possibility of reducing supplies depends very much on the effective detection and action at the point of entry into the country (ie at the “barrier”).