NT cannabis use
The Northern Territory government has announced plans to make petrol sniffing illegal in November, allowing police to seize inhalants and take affected people to a safe place. While the laws stop short of criminalising petrol sniffing, they will give courts the powers to order people into treatment programs. And the government has set aside $10 million dollars over five years to address the issue. Meanwhile, a report to be tabled in the NT parliament next week shows an extremely high level of cannabis consumption in two East Arnhem Aboriginal communities. Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, Dr Alan Clough told Rubena Colbey that some people who started out sniffing petrol have now replaced it with frequent marijuana use – at a high cost.