How many people use cannabis in Australia?
Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in Australia. About 42% of Australians over 18 have tried cannabis at some time in their life and 11.6% have used it in the past 12 months.
Cannabis use and young people
Most people who use cannabis are adults. One in four (25.5%) people aged 18–24 have used cannabis in the past 12 months, making recent use most common in this age group.
Among teenagers aged 14–17, 13% have ever tried it, and 9.7% have used it in the past 12 months.
The average age of first use of cannabis in Australia is 19.1 years old, and the average age of people who have used it at least once in the past year is 35.6 years old.
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Support for cannabis legalisation
Almost half (44.6%) of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis.
The overwhelming majority of Australians (80.2%) support the decriminalisation of cannabis and believe that possession of cannabis for personal use should not be a criminal offence.
Most people support non-punitive approaches to people found in possession for personal use, with 58.6% supporting no action or a caution or warning, and 21.8% supporting referral to a treatment or education program.
Interestingly, if cannabis were legal, most people (73.1%) say they still wouldn’t use it. Only 3% say they would increase their use.
Legal status of cannabis in Australia
The NT and SA decriminalised cannabis for personal use three decades ago. Personal possession of small amounts of cannabis is dealt with an ‘expiation,’ a fine that doesn’t carry a criminal conviction if it’s paid on time.
In SA, it’s mandatory for police officers to give an expiation notice, while in the NT, it’s discretionary – police can choose whether they’ll give a notice or arrest the person.
Most other states and territories practice decriminalisation in one way or another through police diversion. This is where police give people caught in possession of small amounts of cannabis a caution and/or refer them to education or treatment.
In most cases, these diversion schemes are discretionary and are subject to strict eligibility criteria. That means that diversions can be unfairly applied and many people fall through the gaps.
In the ACT, some form of decriminalisation had been in place for around three decades, like in the NT and SA.
In 2020, the ACT was the first Australian state to make it legal to grow up to two cannabis plants at home and possess cannabis for personal use. So adults caught with amounts of cannabis under a certain threshold aren’t penalised at all.
This has had no impact on rates of use, cannabis price or availability, drug driving offences, and hospital visits. It has significantly reduced involvement with the criminal justice system among people who use cannabis, reduced stigma and discrimination, and an increased willingness of people to seek help for cannabis use issues.
Many jurisdictions around the world – including Uruguay, Canada, Thailand, and several states in the United States– have legalised the sale and possession of cannabis, using varying models of legalisation and regulation.
Focusing on harm
Australia’s official drug strategy is based on a platform of harm minimisation, including supply reduction, demand reduction, and harm reduction. Policies should therefore have a net reduction in harm.
But some of the major harms from using illicit drugs are precisely because they are illegal, particularly in the case of cannabis.
For example, while cannabis use generally carries a minimal risk of serious health harms for most people, the unknown potency and quality of cannabis circulated on the black market raises the risk of potential health harms.
And importantly, the socioeconomic impacts of a criminal record are generally substantially more harmful than the harms of actually using of cannabis. A criminal record can profoundly affect employment, education, and housing prospects. It contributes to significant social stigma and discrimination, and disproportionately impact marginalised communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people who are culturally and linguistically diverse.
The case for legalisation
A large proportion of the work of the justice system is spent on drug related offences. The criminal justice costs of cannabis were estimated to be $2.4 billion in 2015–16 and the weight of cannabis seizures has increased by 47% over the past decade.
Yet, in the words of Mick Palmer, former AFP Commissioner, “…drug law enforcement has had little impact on the Australian drug market.”
While decriminalisation may somewhat reduce the burden on the justice system, police and court resources would still be used for cautioning, issuing fines, or diversion to education or treatment.
Legalising the recreational use, possession, and sale of cannabis through a regulated, non-commercial, public health model is more likely to achieve the most public health gains for the Australian community while reducing the massive costs associated with the criminal justice approach.
Legalising cannabis will divert people away from the black market and criminal justice system, and the research to date suggests there is no significant change in use or other outcomes where cannabis legalisation has occurred.
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