Drug Law Reform Update: the NSW Two-Strike Scheme

A new two-strike diversion scheme, known as the Early Drug Diversion Initiative (EDDI), came into effect in NSW on 29th February 2024.

Under the new scheme, if you are caught by police with a “small amount” of a single illicit drug, you could now receive a $400 fine instead of a charge and court summons. If police find drugs on your person, in your car or in your house, this scheme could apply to you. If you get caught once or twice, you will be eligible to receive the fine – more than twice, and the matter will go before the courts — which is why it’s known as the two-strike scheme.

If you are eligible and accepted for EDDI, you will not have a criminal charge recorded on your criminal record.

The fine can also be waived if you partake in an over-the-phone Health Intervention with a for-purpose specialised counselling service being run by St Vincent’s Health Network. In these health interventions, which will supposedly last about 60 minutes, staff from the counselling service will talk to you about your drug use, outline some of the risks involved, and promote healthy options and treatment. Individuals will have to book this appointment themselves before the fine is due.

EDDI does not cover cannabis but the already existing Cannabis Cautioning Scheme allows for a caution without a fine to be given instead of criminal charges to people caught with 15 grams of cannabis or less.

The new initiative has some serious limitations.

• Police decide on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, this scheme (like the cannabis caution scheme) allows police will use their “discretion”, which means it is entirely up to them whether someone is charged and given a court summons, instead of receiving a fine. We know that people who are already known to police are often targeted by the police and treated unfairly – this is just one problem of giving individual police officers discretion. The evidence from the Cannabis Cautioning Scheme is that wealth and race influence the way police use their discretion. Data published in December 2020 showed that non-Indigenous people were 4 times more like to just be cautioned than Indigenous people and that while only 24% of people caught with cannabis in the Upper Hunter Shire got off with caution, 75% of those in North Sydney did.

• Doesn’t cover possession of paraphernalia. The Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 says: “A person who has in his or her possession any item of equipment for use in the administration of a prohibited drug is guilty of an offence.” This clause doesn’t apply to needles and syringes you get from an NSP, but does include other injecting equipment such as torniquets, spoons and swabs, as well as ice pipes and straight pipes (these are the pipes which are used for smoking crack cocaine or DMT).

• Only applies if you are caught with a single drug. If you get caught with multiple drugs (not including cannabis, so for example a small amount of ice and a small amount of heroin), you will not be eligible to receive the fine.

• Does not cover people who have already received 2 EDDI fines or have a criminal history of offences such as drug supply, manufacture, or importation. This will mean that people from overpoliced communities will be less likely to be eligible.

What is considered a “small quantity” of various drugs?

Amphetamine – 1g
Cocaine – 1g
DMT – 1g
Heroin – 1g
Ketamine – 2.5g
LSD, LSD analogues, 25x series– 4 tabs
Methamphetamine – 1g
Opium – 10g
Magic Mushrooms – 4 doses (e.g. mushy caps), or 0.04g
MDMA – In tablet form, 0.75g, in other form (i.e. crystal/powder) 0.25g
[Source: Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985]

User News would like to emphasise that the two-strike diversion scheme, also known as the Early Drug Diversion Initiative (EDDI), is not decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs. The possession of drugs is still illegal in NSW. NUAA, who publish Users News, stands firmly in our support of complete decriminalisation of possession and use of all drugs, as recommended in the report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug 'Ice'.