When future generations look back on cannabis prohibition, it will no doubt be viewed as one of the biggest public policy failures that modern humans have ever come up with. Cannabis prohibition is a failed and harmful public policy by every measure. Unfortunately, cannabis prohibition is still the law of the land in many parts of the world, including in Australia. At a national level, it is currently illegal to produce, distribute, or sell cannabis for non-medical reasons.

Thankfully, some jurisdictions are modernizing cannabis policies at a local level in Australia to help reduce the harm caused by prohibition, including in Victoria, where the Victorian Legislative Council has reportedly backed a motion from Legalise Cannabis Victoria to formalize an internal Victoria Police policy of issuing a warning instead of making an arrest for low-level cannabis possession.

“Victoria Police changed their policy in September 2024. However, no-one seems to know about it,” said Legalise Cannabis Victoria MP Rachel Payne, according to original reporting by Cannabiz.“This includes current serving police, former police, legal experts and human rights legal experts who look at cautioning schemes all the time.”

MP Payne put forward the motion to formalize the internal policy after making an inquiry to the Victoria police minister about how to stop arresting cannabis consumers for low-level possession. After being told by the police minister that they already had an informal policy in place, Payne pursued the inquiry further and learned that many officers still issued arrests instead of warnings.

“This was supported by Crime Statistics Agency data cited by the party, which showed 48% of people detected with small amounts of cannabis were still arrested, compared to 37% who received cautions.” reported Cannabiz.

With the full support of the Victorian Legislature, the proposal is set to move forward in the process of becoming codified policy. Legalise Cannabis Victoria is hopeful that the policy will be fully implemented before the upcoming November 28 state election.

The ‘gold standard’ of local cannabis policy modernization in Australia is in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), where it is legal for adults to possess up to 50 grams of dried cannabis or up to 150 grams of ‘fresh cannabis’. In 2019, the ACT decriminalized the personal use of cannabis through the passage of the Drugs of Dependence (Personal Cannabis Use) Amendment Act 2019.