CANNABIS LAWS

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Industrial Relations, representing the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, a question regarding cannabis use and laws in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: The results of a very thorough international study published in March last year in the prestigious British Medical Journal, covering some 1,900 young people aged 14 to 24 years and tracked over a period of 10 years, has shown that cannabis use significantly increased the risk of psychotic symptoms and that people who smoked cannabis for six years or more are twice as likely to have psychotic episodes, hallucinations or delusions.

Another recent report by Dalhousie University in Canada, involving the reviewing of nine studies of some 50,000 people worldwide who had been involved in serious fatal car crashes, showed that drivers who used cannabis up to three hours before driving were twice as likely to cause a collision as those not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The Controlled Substances Act 1984 in South Australia provides that a simple cannabis offence must be dealt with by an expiation notice without requiring a court attendance, even for those growing cannabis plants. My question to the minister is: in view of the now overwhelming evidence of the link between cannabis use and both psychotic episodes and road trauma, does the minister regard the current law in South Australia as appropriate, particularly with respect to those growing cannabis plants?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:02): I thank the member for his very important question and will refer it on to the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse for a quick response.