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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 565 asked in the Legislative Council on 14 August 2018 by Hon Charles Smith

Parliament: 40 Session: 1


POLICE — DRUG OFFENCES — PROSECUTIONS
      565. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the minister representing the Minister for Police:
I refer to recently available crime statistics on the WA Police Force website demonstrating that drug offences in the last 12 months continue to rise in WA.
      (1) Can the minister advise on the number of prosecutions for the illicit substances of cannabis and methylamphetamine?
      (2) What were the outcomes of those prosecutions for cannabis and methylamphetamine broken down into —
          (a) fines;
          (b) custodial sentences;
          (c) diversionary programs;
          (d) treatment programs; and
          (e) no convictions recorded?
      (3) Can the minister advise on the approximate cost of drug enforcement to the WA police over the last 12-month period?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for Police.
      (1)–(3) The Western Australia Police Force advises that from June 2017 to May 2018 there have been 7 603 charges of possession and 632 charges of sell or supply related to cannabis, and 4 009 charges of possession and 1 254 charges of sell or supply related to methylamphetamine. Requests for data regarding court outcomes, such as conviction figures, should be directed to the Department of Justice, which is the custodian of this data. The cost of drug enforcement to the WA Police Force is spread across multiple units involved in a wide range of policing duties. Due to time constraints, it is not possible to provide an approximate cost; however, the meth border force was created by the McGowan government in 2017, and funded $83.5 million from 2017–18 to 2020–21.