The Former Premier Of Western Australia Joins Global Commission On Drug Policy

The Global Commission on Drug Policy announced Monday the addition of a 27th member, former Premier of Western Australia Geoff Gallop.

Gallop decriminalized possession of small quantities of cannabis when in office back in 2004, and continues to be a promoter of people-centered drug policies. He is the first member from Australia to be admitted to the Global Commission, and the third in the region joining elen Clark and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate José Ramos-Horta.

Gallop will be carrying the advocacy of the Global Commission in Australia and abroad.

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"In the drug debate in Australia we have seen how policy can produce good results when informed by a human-centred, pragmatic approach," Gallop told Benzinga in an email. "Our country has in the past taken new approaches to tackling drugs such as the establishment of a pioneering needle exchange program and the creation almost 20 years ago of the Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre at King Cross – at the time the first in the English-speaking world."

The Global Commission on Drug Policy has an impressive lineup, which includes 14 former Heads of State or Government from Brazil, Chile, Colombia (2), Greece, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland and Timor-Leste, as well as four Nobel Prize laureates.

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