Baden Hicks battled drug addiction for 20 years, during which he says he survived 18 overdoses, five by the “skin of his teeth”.
He has experienced homelessness, been in and out of psychiatric wards and jail. But the 36-year-old wants to be known as more than “just a drug addict”.
“I’m a father, I’m a brother, I’m a son, I’m a grandson, I’m an uncle. Through my functional addict years, I got a boilermaker apprenticeship, I went to night school and did further studies in that. I worked in the dive industry for eight years. I’m a scuba diver and a spear fisher,” he tells Guardian Australia.
“People don’t choose to become drug addicts. There’s a reason why people generally use drugs. For me, I used drugs to deal with a lot of pain in my life, which really felt unbearable.”
Having graduated from marijuana to cocaine, heroin, speed and ice, Hicks credits lawyer Michelle Goldberg from First Step with saving his life after she represented him in a case, introduced him to a mental health worker and helped him get a place in the service’s ResetLife program.
He has now been in recovery for 15 months and has completed a certificate IV in alcohol and other drugs, is volunteering at First Step and working in peer support at Turning Point, an addiction research and education centre in Richmond, Melbourne.
He has also spent time at Victoria’s parliament in recent weeks to garner support for a bill put forward by Reason party MP Fiona Patten to decriminalise drugs.
Under Patten’s bill, to be debated on Wednesday, police would issue a compulsory notice and referral to drug education or treatment to people believed to have used or possessed a drug of dependence.
If they comply, there would be no finding of guilt and no recorded criminal outcome.
Patten has described the war on drugs as “one of the most disastrous public policy failures in modern history”, which has destroyed lives, wasted money and created a black market that has enriched organised criminals.
“What we’re doing hasn’t reduced arrests, it hasn’t reduced harm. It hasn’t reduced use,” she tells Guardian Australia.
Decriminalisation is supported by the United Nations and the World Health Organization and in Australia by the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Royal Australian College of Physicians, as well as several key drug and alcohol bodies.
But getting politicians to buy in is another matter entirely. Both the Andrews government and the opposition have ruled out supporting Patten’s bill.
“We know the harmful impact illicit drug use can have on the community – that’s why Victoria police is constantly focused on targeting drug dealers and manufacturers to break up their criminal activity,” a government spokesperson says.
That’s despite costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office that found Patten’s proposal would save the state $33m between 2021/22 and 2024/25 and more in following years, thanks to a reduction in drug enforcement activity by courts and prisons, although this would be partially offset by a decrease in revenue of $1.3m due to a reduction in fines.
Patten describes her model as a “streamlined” version of what’s in place in Portugal, which saw drops in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates when it became the first country to decriminalise the possession and consumption of all illicit substances in 2001.
Victoria isn’t the first Australian jurisdiction to debate decriminalisation. Possession of cannabis has been decriminalised in Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Northern Territory for decades.
There’s also a private member’s bill before the ACT parliament that, if passed, would allow people found with a personal supply of drugs to pay a small fine rather than face criminal charges.
In New South Wales, a plan to introduce a “three chance” warning system for people found with small quantities of drugs was put to cabinet in December 2020 but opposed by several ministers including deputy premier John Barilaro and police minister David Elliott.
Patrick Lawrence, CEO of First Step, says in his 20 years working in the sector he has never met someone dealing with addiction who hasn’t suffered trauma.
“The greatest impact of our current drug laws is felt not by the recreational drug user but people who have survived childhood poverty, sexual abuse, homelessness and the absence of love and bonding,” he says.
According to the Victoria Police Drug Strategy 2020/2025, police are focused on targeting drug dealers and manufacturers to break up their criminal activity and connecting those suffering addiction with treatment and support services.
The strategy states drug problems are “first and foremost health issues” and urges officers to show empathy: “Drug users could be our children, members of our family, our friends or people who have lost their way. When we see the human, we will see the way forward.”
Greg Denham was part of Victoria police in the mid-1990s when a drug policy expert committee set up by then-premier Jeff Kennett recommended the adoption of a harm-minimisation approach.
The committee, headed by academic David Penington, also called for the use and possession of small amounts of cannabis no longer to be an offence, while heroin and other drugs to remain illegal, but with the use of cautions and referral to drug treatment centres for the first offence.
Diversions were introduced and were being used in 80% of circumstances, Denham says.
“At the time police were advised that they should use it as often as they can, that a person can get more than one drug diversion. But a lot of police started to say ‘Well, why should we give them a second chance? Why should we give them a slap on the wrist so many times?’” he says, noting diversions are currently being used in 20% of circumstances.
“We need policies that are actually enshrined in law rather than just words that can be easily ignored and disregarded.”
Denham says the state has “slipped backwards” when it comes to drug policy reform and blames politicians.
“It’s almost become a taboo topic. They’re so concerned their words may be misconstrued or they may be the next headline in the tabloid press,” Denham says.
The Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt, however, maintains Patten’s bill is not needed, given officers have been issuing cautions and diverting people into treatment programs for many years.
“To be quite honest the settings at the moment are quite balanced. It’s simply a fallacy to suggest that low-level drug users are all going to jail,” he told reporters last month.
Patten, who has successfully led campaigns on other social reforms, including the Richmond supervised injecting room, the enactment of the nation’s first assisted dying laws and most recently, the decriminalisation of sex work, concedes her bill won’t pass without the support of one of the major parties.
But she is hopeful for a commitment to progress, potentially through a trial, which wouldn’t require legislation.
On Hicks’s right arm is a tattoo of a “moral compass”. Instead of coordinates, he is guided by morality, wisdom, humility and courage. He hopes politicians will take the same approach.
“I hear politicians say they want to focus on mental health and physical health issues. My mental health issues and physical issues have been caused by addiction. You treat addiction and then you’re going to be treating mental illness,” he says.
“You treat addiction, you change people’s lives.”
• Crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
• The National Alcohol and Other Drug hotline is at 1800 250 015; families and friends can seek help at Family Drug Support Australia at 1300 368 186.
• The Opioid Treatment Line is at 1800 642 428 or call the National Alcohol and Other Drug hotline on 1800 250 015.
