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He points to interceptions of drug importations headed for Australia before they even depart South America. The NSW Crime Commission’s annual report highlights a joint investigation with NSW Police in which 1.2 tonnes of cocaine was seized by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and replaced with an “inert substitute”,leading to the arrest of seven members of a NSW-based criminal syndicate.
Almost four years into his tenure as commissioner,Barnes said the continuing glamorising of illicit drugs was an issue in combating drug crime.
But the consequences of the drug trade went beyond the “tragic,terrible” harms of overdoses or gang-affiliated shootings in public places,underlining the impact on the health system,the cost of law enforcement and social dislocation.
“Just saying it’s a crime problem with local law enforcement ignores those other,much broader and social impacts. It seems to me it’s still glamorised,” Barnes said.
“It’s got to be a whole community response. It’s got to be the private sector,NGOs,civil society,the corporates,all of these groups and institutions within society that have levers have to take steps to convince people that drug abuse causes lots of harm.”
He pointed to successful public health campaigns to reduce the rate of smoking,drink-driving and unsafe sex during the AIDS epidemic as proof societal attitudes could be shifted.
“I can’t accept that Australians want to participate in the vicious,horrendous,corrupting organised-crime networks that are currently supplying their cocaine,” he said.
“For many people,drug use is probably their only form of criminal offending as they’re not people who generally disregard what’s in the public interest.”
As laid out in NSW Crime Commission’s 2023 annual report,Australians spent $10 billion on illicit drugs in the year to August 2022.
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The revenue from the illicit drug trade has sustained and exacerbated a violent turf war between organised criminal gangs that has at times exploded onto Sydney’s streets,including theexecution of crime figure Alen Moradian in the affluent eastern suburbs in June last year.
With the ACT embarking on an Australian-first foray into decriminalising small quantities of personal drugs,Barnes said “significant monitoring is occurring” but it would take three to five years to fully understand the implications of the policy,which would likely inform broader reform.
“Canberra is a good melting pot for us;a good opportunity for us to see how it does play out,” he said,noting recent media reports about chapters of outlaw motorcycle gangs setting up in the capital.
“It’s a social experiment that we’ll all watch very keenly. And people complain about federalism a lot … But the advantage of it is we’ve got eight different jurisdictions where things can be trialled.”
“If we do decriminalise methamphetamine and cocaine,for example,who will produce it? Is the government going to enter into multilateral trade agreements with the American or Mexican cartels,or we are we going to grow cocaine here in NSW and produce it and sell it?,” he asked.
Asked whether he could ever see a similar policy being implemented across the border in NSW,a naturally more conservative jurisdiction,Barnes replied:“I would hope all governments will act on the evidence.”
National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015