This page has archived copies of my published and unpublished research related to cannabis law reform in Western Australia (WA).
Swensen, G.
Cannabis law reform in Western Australia in 2010 and 2011: Criminalisation of cannabis smoking paraphernalia. Part 1: Legislative and policy context.
Working draft 30 August 2025 (Research Gate)
This paper is a review of the legislative and policy context of drug law reforms that occurred in 2010 and 2011 in Western Australia (WA) which amended the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 to criminalise cannabis smoking paraphernalia.
The first reform involved the Cannabis Law Reform Act 2010 which dismantled the Cannabis infringement notice (CIN) scheme in April 2010 by repealing the Cannabis Control Act 2004 and replacing it with the Cannabis intervention requirement (CIR) scheme.
The second reform involved the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2011 which increased the penalties for the possession of ‘used’ cannabis smoking paraphernalia and, for the first time, criminalised the sale and distribution of unused ie ‘new’ cannabis smoking paraphernalia in the WA.
Click here to view or download a preprint working draft of this paper which considers the legislative and policy context associated with the 2010 and 2011 reforms.
Swensen, G
Cannabis law reform in Western Australia in 2010 and 2011: Criminalisation of cannabis smoking paraphernalia. Part 2: Harm minimisation.
Working draft 30 August 2025 (Research Gate)
This paper is a review of the legislative and policy context of drug law reforms that occurred in 2010 and 2011 in Western Australia (WA) which amended the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 to criminalise cannabis smoking paraphernalia.
This paper is largely concerned with how these reforms were inconsistent with and repudiated the principles of harm minimisation which had guided and informed the framework of drug policy over the four-decade period since key reforms in WA related to drug injecting paraphernalia.
Click here to view or download a preprint working draft of this paper which considers some of the harm minimisation consequences associated with the 2010 and 2011 reforms.
Swensen, G. (2014)
Spent conviction orders & cannabis law reform in WA: The triumph of rhetoric?
This unpublished paper considers how a new scheme for cautioning minor cannabis offenders in Western Australia (WA) has resulted in manifest unfairness of how a person can expunge a record for a conviction for a minor cannabis offence, depending on whether they were convicted before or after 1 August 2011.
This issue arises from the adoption of the cannabis intervention requirement (CIR) scheme, which commenced in WA on 1 August 2011, after amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 (MDA), for police to issue a caution for two specific minor cannabis offences, involving possession –
- of any drug paraphernalia in or on which there is cannabis (MDA Section 7B(6)), or
- of not more than 10 grams of cannabis (MDA Section 6(2)).
Because of the approach adopted by the Cannabis Law Reform Act 2010, which amended the Spent Convictions Act 1988, there are now two pathways to obtain a spent conviction order for a minor cannabis offence, depending on whether the person was convicted before or after 1 August 2011.
The differences in the time between conviction and when an application for a spent conviction order may be lodged, are considerable because if it was a minor cannabis conviction pre August 2011 the prescribed period is 10 years, whereas if it is a conviction from 1 August 2011, the prescribed period is three years.
Click here to view or download a PDF version [121k] of this paper.
Swensen, G
Fifteen years of cannabis law reform in Western Australia: 1998 – 2013. Some lessons for future reform.
Paper presented at the Critical Criminology Conference, Flinders University 22-23 July 2013.
The paper discusses three schemes which operated in Western Australia (WA) over the 15 year period from 1998 to 2013 which depenalised cannabis use :
- the Cannabis cautioning mandatory education scheme (CCMES) which operated from 1998 to 21 March 2004,
- the Cannabis infringement notice (CIN) scheme which operarted from 22 March 2004 to 31 July 2011 and
- the Cannabis infringement requirement (CIR) scheme which has operated from 1 August 2011 up to the present.
The presentation included a discussion of the legislative frameworks that were utilised to establish these schemes, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 and the Cannabis Control Act 2003 as well as details of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment (Cannabis Cautioning Notices) Bill 1999 and the Poisons Amendment (Cannabis for Medical and commercial Purposes) Bill 1999, which failed to be passed by the Western Australian Parliament.
Statistical data about the operation of the CIN and CIR schemes was also referred to, which are presented in tables and figures in the text of the presentation.
The paper suggests that over the 15 year period since 1998 the three reforms did not result in liberalisation of cannabis laws in WA, but enabled governments to increase the repressive nature of penalties of existing offences and make amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 to extend the scope of drug laws to further criminalise and penalise those who use cannabis.
Click here to view or download a PDF version (834k) of the text of the presentation, which consists of a total of 38 pages, 21 pages of text, 13 tables, 7 figures and 3 slides.
Swensen, G.
Cannabis Offences at 31 March 2013
This is an unpublished overview of offences and penalties under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 (MDA) in relation to both minor and serious cannabis offences in Western Australia (WA) is available, updated at 31 March 2013.
It summarises the provisions contained in the various schedules to the MDA which set out the amounts of cannabis and how these determine place of trial and seriousness of offence (ie possession with intent to sell or supply).
Click here to view or download a PDF version (29k) of this paper.
There have been a number of inquiries, reviews and commissioned research in Western Australia (WA) concerned with the adequacy of existing policies and potential reforms to manage problems attributable to the use of alcohol, cannabis and other drugs.
Details of those conducted since the early 1970s are listed elsewhere on the Inquiries and review page of this website.
This page is concerned with research related to cannabis law enforcement issues and cannabis law reform.
Swensen, G. (2011)
Cannabis arrests: Australia and other jurisdictions – 2004
This unpublished paper provides information about cannabis arrests and all drug arrests in each Australian jurisdiction and the United Kingdom for the year 2004/2005 and New Zealand and the United States for 2004. (Only cannabis arrests for the US data were readily available for 2004.)
Click here to view or download a PDF (238k) version of this publication.
Swensen, G. (2009)
Hydroponic cannabis and potency
This unpublished paper was prepared in September 2009. It discusses developments at that time in the WA, SA and the ACT infringement schemes in relation to hydroponically cultivated cannabis and amendments in 2006 in New South Wales (NSW) which created new offences and increased the penalties applicable to hydroponically cultivated cannabis.
Click here to view or download a PDF version [299k] of this paper.
Swensen, G. (2006)
Reform of minor cannabis laws in Western Australia, the United Kingdom & New Zealand (2006)
This thesis was submitted in 2006 for the requirements of a LLM at Murdoch University.
Click here to go to the Murdoch University Digital These Program to view or download the thesis.
It examines in some detail the recent history of cannabis law reform in Western Australia (WA), the United Kingdom (UK0 and New Zealand (NZ) up to 2005 and includes a review of decriminalisation of cannabis in a number of other Western countries.
The publication includes an examination of some of the reasons for reform failing to occur in NZ, even though it shares similarities with WA and the UK in the evolution of drug policy and the legal framework for criminalising cannabis and other drugs.
The report discusses how over the past three decades there has been intense and sustained debate in a number of major Western countries about the wisdom of the criminal justice system continuing to severely punish offenders by fines and even imprisonment due to the adoption of policies that prohibit the use, possession and cultivation of cannabis. This debate has proceeded against a background of apparent failure of the prohibition of cannabis, as there have been a large and growing number of young adults who have been exposed to cannabis.
The discussion also refers to growing evidence that some of those who have been charged and received criminal convictions with attendant deleterious effects on their employment and wellbeing has forced policy makers to re-evaluate the justification for continuing to criminalise cannabis. The thesis consists of the following chapters:
- Introduction (Ch 1)
- Drug law enforcement and drug markets (Ch 2)
- Models of cannabis law reform (Ch 3)
- Case studies of cannabis law reform (Ch 4)
- Decriminalisation of cannabis – What is known? (Ch 5)
- Consequences of cannabis law reform (Ch 6)
- Lessons from cannabis law reform (Ch 7)
Swensen, G. (2004)
The 2004 cannabis law reforms in Western Australia & the United Kingdom: A case of too much caution? Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müeller, 2008.
[ISBN: 978-3-639-03177-5]
This 360 page monograph was published in mid 2008 by the German publishers academic VDM Verlag Dr Müller, but which is now available from online book sellers Buecher.de.