David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (09:56): On this day in 1971 Richard Nixon famously declared America’s public enemy number one to be drug abuse and launched his worldwide war on drugs, arguably one of the worst public policy decisions of all time. Fifty-five years later we are still fighting this war and still counting the casualties, from the mass incarceration of millions of people around the globe to the lives lost to overdose. Australia recorded its deadliest overdose year on record in 2024, with close to 2600 deaths. Communities and indeed entire countries have been devastated by this war. Globally it costs around $100 billion a year to fight. Australia arrests close to 50,000 people for drug offences, mostly for possession, and spends about $1.9 billion a year, with 55 per cent for law enforcement and 3 per cent on harm reduction. Far from ridding the world of illicit drugs, prohibition has fostered the continual expansion of the world’s most lucrative illicit market, worth around $400 billion a year. Meanwhile drug use continues to increase. So do we continue to abdicate our responsibilities and leave regulation of drugs to criminal organisations, or do we accept that this war is delivering the opposite of its stated goal and seek alternatives? How about we start here in Victoria with the low-hanging fruit and end the prohibition and criminalisation of cannabis.