Substance Abuse

Drugs and Addiction

All forms of addiction are dangerous not only to the addict himself, but to society as well.

Whether the addiction relates to gambling, sex, pornography or drugs, not only does the addict suffer greatly but the economic and social costs flowing out of addiction are very significant to society as a whole.

Consequently, civil libertarians who only recognise the right of the individual to do as he pleases make claims that are ill-founded and detrimental to the interests of our communities.

CDP disagrees with the concept of “harm minimisation”.  Harm minimisation is a defeatist concept which assumes that addictive behaviour cannot be overcome and that consequently the best policy is to maintain the addict in the addicted state whilst taking precautions against some of the harms of addiction.

CDP supports a policy of “zero tolerance” of illicit drugs and endorses the goal of a drug-free society.  This approach has proven to be successful in Sweden.

CDP supports legislation that will:

• reduce demand through prevention, education and demonstration that lives are better lived without drugs;
• reduce supply;
• focus on early intervention: empowering parents to act quickly with the benefit of accurate and comprehensive information;
• emphasise prohibition and heavier penalties not only for large scale professional traffickers but also for ordinary users and “pushers”;
• provide easily accessible treatment, aimed at abstinence.

CDP also supports:

• Compulsory school programs that give honest and accurate information on the dangers of drug use with a focus on how to say “no” to drugs;
• Educating parents and teachers about the dangers of addiction and how to recognise the signs of abuse to facilitate early intervention;
• Increased and improved border controls and the confiscation of assets of convicted traffickers;
• Anti-drug advertisements in all forms of media;
• The abandonment of decriminalisation measures (such as the cannabis infringement scheme in Western Australia.)
• Strict control preventing the use and distribution of drugs through the prison system;
• The closure of the Sydney-based medically supervised injection centre;
• The abandonment of all needle exchange programs since these have contributed to an increase in the number of addicts, facilitated the spread of Hepatitis C, led to a rise in drug overdose deaths and adversely affected local businesses.

Drug courts

CDP supports the concept of drug courts operating on the following basis:

• The party appearing before the court pleads guilty to a felony, possession of a controlled substance, or a forged prescription or possession with intent to distribute.
• The plea is held in abeyance until the person completes an approved rehabilitation course.  On graduation, the plea is withdrawn and criminal charges are dismissed.
• Course participants are checked during the course through urine tests.  If participants relapse, they need to start the course again or face criminal charges.

Liquor laws

CDP recognises the misuse of alcohol to be a wide ranging social problem supports a restrictive business hour policy for hotels.  CDP does not support the provision of alcohol through supermarket chains.

CDP supports instigating government research into the benefits of increasing the drinking age to 21.

CDP supports a review of the liquor advertising laws
Smoking

CDP supports the continuation of all forms of advertisement warning of the harmful health effects of tobacco.