Queensland's Illicit Drug Enforcement and Diversion Framework: A Clinical Assessment

The Queensland Government is dismantling its expanded drug diversion program — a decision that peak medical, nursing, and legal bodies have condemned as prioritising political messaging over healthcare evidence.The program being wound back is not some experimental fringe intervention. From May 2024, Queensland's expanded Drug Diversion Program offered a tiered health response: a warning for a first offence, followed by Drug Diversion Assessment Programs for second and third offences — keeping people out of the court system and into health support. The data on the program's operation over the first 18 months showed it was working as intended. The government's response to that data was to scrap the model before its scheduled 2026 evaluation.What the new framework actually does — and why it's scientifically backwards.The Crisafulli Government is not abolishing diversion entirely. Under the new Illicit Drug Enforcement and Diversion Framework, eligible first-time cannabis offenders will...