Quantifying and expanding alternatives to arrest for personal use and possession of illicit drugs in Australia

The possession and use of illicit drugs have long been criminalised in Australia. Yet there is compelling evidence that criminalisation for these offences alone is inefficient and ineffective and conversely that alternatives to arrest, particularly referrals to education/treatment, provide health, social and criminal justice benefits. In 2018 Hughes et al estimated that Australia diverted 55% of people detected with a personal use/possession offence away from the courts and that SA was the national leader in police drug diversion. Yet significant shifts have occurred, with program expansions in some states and legal contractions in SA specifically, spurring stakeholder concerns about current drug diversion reach. Equally importantly, the United Nations has issued new calls for all countries, Australia included, to expand alternatives to arrest. By combining legal doctrinal analysis and statistical analysis of three unpublished sets of Australian Bureau of
Statistics data covering all Australia police detections, court actions and imprisonment for drug use and possession over an 8-year period, this project will comprehensively assess the reach of Australian drug diversion programs today and trends and state differences. Doing so will provide much needed evidence into the necessity of and optimal legal avenues to expand diversion in SA and Australia more broadly.