ILLICIT drug use or possession will be decriminalised in Victoria if a Bill is successful when introduced by Reason Party leader, Fiona Patten to the Victorian Parliament next week.

Under the radical proposal, people believed to have used or possessed a drug of dependence would be issued a mandatory notice by Victoria Police and referred to drug education or treatment.

Local Area Commander for Southern Grampians Police Service Area, Inspector Stephen Thompson said that police generally do not comment on policy before the parliament, however, he expressed local police commitment to improved outcomes for youth.

“We’re very interested in the progress of the Bill as we’re committed to providing improved outcomes for young people,” Inspector Thompson said.

“We’re also committed to working with partner agencies.

“There are existing alternatives currently in place within the judicial system which includes a range of diversion programs and referral pathways for young people away from criminal activity.”

Ms Patten’s Bill proposes that compliance with a notice would lead to no finding of guilt or recorded criminal outcome.

Ms Patten has been a long-time advocate of evidence-based drug policy reform and said the push to reform the state’s drug laws was about saving lives and reducing harm caused by drugs.

“(The) current drug law is killing innocent people and causing untold other harm, wasting billions of taxpayers’ dollars, fuelling organised crime, and squandering scarce health and law-enforcement resources, and the members of the Victorian Parliament know it,” Ms Patten said.

“That’s not an assertion, it’s a fact proved by domestic and international experience.

“Failure to make this change would be wilfully ignorant to the point of negligent, because so many lives depend on it, and the quality of life of so many people and communities and families can so readily be improved through harm reduction.”

Warrnambool’s Western Region Alcohol and Drug (WRAD) centre director, Geoff Soma said for the most part, alcohol and drug use was not a criminal justice issue, but rather a health issue, and as such requires careful treatment to address a range of quite complex issues.

“There is good evidence to suggest that investment in education is more productive than investing in the criminal justice system,” he said.

WRAD is a community-based alcohol and drug service that has delivered treatment and care to the community for more than 30 years.

“We see great results in rehabilitation on different levels,” Mr Soma said.

“(Drug and alcohol abuse) is very difficult to overcome, but with the right intervention, motivation and support, recovery is possible.”

“People who stop using tend to have improved relationships with family and friends - are then able to go on to be employed and find accommodation and become more productive in the community - with the right treatment.

“Importantly, they make significant changes psychologically, emotionally and physically.”

Members of the local D-Force committee were contacted for comment but declined, stating it was not the forum to comment on their project.

D-Force is a high school program aimed at year 7 and 8 students designed to teach young people to protect themselves and their friends from the dangers of the drug methamphetamine.

The program was started by two Hamilton police officers who wanted to prevent the damage they saw happening in the community from methamphetamine use.

They gathered a group of specialists and community organisations to develop a program in conjunction with schools that would help to protect kids from methamphetamine.

Ms Patten’s Bill is supported by what she considers compelling evidence - including from the World Health Organisation,

the United Nations, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians - which has shown the decades-old war on drugs to be one of the most disastrous public policy failures in modern history.

Ms Patten has also been instrumental in another significant social reform, by helping to introduce drug injection rooms in Melbourne.

She has also called on the State Government to introduce more of the injecting rooms across Melbourne in an effort to curb deaths and reduce ambulance call-outs.