Some sane media talk on drugs - can Labor and Liberal cope?

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On Thursday 6 September the ABC s AM program reported that an Australian National Council on Drugs study reveals millions of dollars are being saved by keeping offenders out of jail and dealing with them elsewhere. The Council presents further evidence that imprisonment can have a 'revolving door' effect, with drug users often re-offending once they've been released.

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Then on the weekend the Sydney Morning Herald ran another excellent article from Lisa Pryor. This time she delves into the type of drugs policy we need and she is upfront about a bit of plagiarisation:

So what kind of a drug policy should we consider? How can we recognise that taking chemical pleasures can be a rational choice while also recognising that drugs destroy the lives of some? How can laws benefit the responsible while also protect the silly?

We should abolish criminal sanctions for personal drug use and focus on treatment and counselling instead. We should maintain penalties for people who use drugs while driving or give drugs to anyone underage. While we're at it, we should ban donations to political parties from the drug, tobacco and alcohol industries so that governments are not beholden to drugs, which happen to be legal now. I have plagiarised all that from the Greens.

And it is worth checking out what is happening in England.

Since 1995, the numbers imprisoned for drug offences have risen by 111 per cent and the average length of their sentences by 29 per cent. A different approach, based on regulation, offers a chance to reduce the harm done by drugs, and at lower cost.

With the federal election just around the corner hopefully there is no law and order drugs media stunt during the election campaign. Right now we need the rational, honest debate that leads to a drugs policy that works for people not politicians.