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Australian National Task Force on Cannabis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Australian National Task Force on Cannabis (NTFC) was a specialised unit formed in April 1992 under the aegis of the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy (MCDS) who are responsible for implementing national consistency in policy principles related to Australia's National Drug Strategy.[1]
Abbreviation | NTFC |
---|---|
Formation | 1992 |
Type | Specialised task force |
Purpose | To research and inform national cannabis policy |
Origins | Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy (MCDS) |
Affiliations | National Drug Strategy (NDS) |
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The Task Force was initiated to analyse the usage of non-medical cannabis in Australia and review options for reform.[2] In 1994 the NTFC published its findings (a series of four technical reports by commissioned specialists and an executive summary) and recommended imposing civil penalties for minor cannabis crimes. It concluded that the harm of criminal penalties was greater than cannabis itself.[3][4][5][6][7] The Ministerial Council did not initially accept the Task Force's recommendation.
Although the Northern Territory acted on the Task Force's recommendation by imposing a civil scheme for minor cannabis offences (1996). The scheme was modelled on the South Australian CEN scheme introduced in 1989 (civil schemes operated already in SA and the ACT in 1992).[2] The Commonwealth Department of Health extended on the NTFC's principle research (1995-1998) by funding reports for the Australian Institute of Criminology and National Drug Strategy Committee.[2]
Research evidence on cannabis has been treated as evidence that is relevant to choosing approaches to cannabis.[8]