Criminal justice responses relating to personal possession of illicit drugs

This project sought to provide the first comprehensive analysis of Australian criminal justice responses relating to personal use and possession of illicit drugs and the reach of Australian drug diversion programs. The specific aims of the project were:

1. To outline current Australian laws and approaches taken to illicit drug use and possession in each jurisdiction (including programs on alternatives to arrest). 2. To assess the scale of criminal justice responses to use/possession in Australia over the period 2010-11 to 2014-15, including the number of people detected, prosecuted and/or sentenced for use/possession, the number of people diverted away from criminal justice proceedings, and the populations that are most and least likely to receive a drug diversion by state/territory and demographic factors. 3. To identify barriers and facilitators to the diversion of use/possess offenders in Australia, e.g. legal barriers, program design, resourcing.

The findings are available in Monograph No. 27: Criminal justice responses relating to personal use and possession of illicit drugs: The reach of Australian drug diversion programs and barriers and facilitators.