The 1979 SA Royal Commission into the
Non-Medical Use of Drugs.

Cannabis Report.

Below is a short summary of the Royal Commission's brief and findings.

We are not aware of any online version.

We will be posting a longer summary in the near future

(Thanks Juana!)

In 1978 the South Australian Labour Government under Don Dunstan, set up a Royal Commission into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs headed by Judge Ronald Sackville.

One of the specific focuses of the enquiry was to look at Cannabis and what was the best approach the government could and should take towards its use and cultivation. After much research, public hearings and submissions from many different groups, the Commission produced a ground breaking report that has defined drug law reform in Australia ever since.

The Commission examined five different choices the law could make regarding Cannabis and how it was dealt with.

These were:

* Total Prohibition (the American Zero tolerance/War on Drugs approach),

* Prohibition with Civil Penalty (like the "on-the-spot" fines in South Australia and the ACT),

* Partial Prohibition (as in Germany, Spain and Italy),

* Regulated Availability (the Dutch Coffee shop model, Alaska from 1975-1986)

* Free Availability option ( where anything goes, with no supervision,quality control, age limits or taxation).

After spending some time examining Cannabis they came to some very interesting conclusions.

They discovered there was a huge difference between what many people thought and the real medical and scientific facts about marijuana.

In 1979 the SA Royal Commision noted:

"One of the striking features of the Cannabis debate [is] the gap between the evidence and widely held beliefs. [People] often stated that far too little is known about the drug and its effects to warrant reconsideration of current legal prohibitions.

This approach seems to overlook the enormous quantity of scientific information which is available concerning the drug and its effects on users...even a cursory glance at the modern history of Cannabis shows a repeated pattern of widely believed myths which often fly in the face of the available evidence.

It is apparent that the debate has been more concerned with values and community attitudes, than with the objective ascertainment of facts" (Sackville, 1979,p 3.)

They noted:

"The official record is noteworthy for the lack of complications relating to cannabis, other than criminal proceedings..."

and concluded:

that the biggest risk to Cannabis users' health, wellbeing and long-term life opportunities, arethe consequences of legal proceedings in the criminal justice system.

The Commission then recommended that the Government adopt
either a system of partial prohibition or regulated availablity.

Unfortunately Don Dunstan had resigned due to ill-health by the time the report was presented. His replacement Des Corcoran completely ignored the recommendation,s and was later replaced at the polls by an even more restrictive Liberal government under Dr. David Tonkin.