By Geraldine Casey
From the ‘Broken Communities’ Special Series
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing has, under both Labor and Liberal administrations, deliberately suppressed every fact about cannabis since 1993. As Brisbane Cannabis Expert Doctor Stuart Reece can attest.
I am constantly aware of the hundreds of Australian mothers whose hearts are broken because their son, daughter or grandchild has used an illicit drug and ruined their lives and the lives of their loved ones, especially their children. The children affected by drug policy decisions made in Canberra and state parliaments never asked for this. There has been no attempt by the Australian Government to reduce illicit drugs causing harm to the family or their children. I make no apology for the facts I have written, only to say that there is much, much more harm to Australian children than the instances I cite in this document.
I am acutely aware of the harm alcohol causes to children, but there is not a stone left unturned when it comes to the anti-alcohol industry educating Australia about alcohol harm. The same cannot be said for illicit drugs.
The Personal Cost: When Children Are Affected by Drug Policy Failures
According to The West Australian’s ‘Broken Communities’ Special Series (‘Child protection staff crisis, Union threatens action to force Communities to hire 200 extra workers’, 25 January 2022), the system is already stretched beyond breaking point. 
On a Saturday morning at 9am I was visiting a patient in the Geraldton Regional Hospital Emergency Department. I had to sit in the waiting room until I could go through to the ED where there was only a young man sitting quietly in the seat in front of me. Suddenly a huge male barged into the room and started ranting and raving at the young man, calling him a ‘druggie’, yelling that he pays him for drugs. This abusive ranting lasted for four minutes.
Because I have had many years of trauma caused by my daughter’s illicit drug use and her son and daughter’s subsequent disabilities, I immediately suffered a Takotsubo episode, also known as Broken Heart Syndrome. My cardiologist, Dr Sam Tayeb, explained: ‘Unfortunately Geraldine experienced an episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as “Broken Heart “, Syndrome, after witnessing a stressful confrontation in the emergency department at Geraldton regional hospital. This led to her developing chest pain. Her high-sensitivity troponins were grossly elevated to over 500 and the echocardiogram findings were consistent with Takotsubo (stress-induced) cardiomyopathy. This was certainly triggered by her witnessing this violent event in the emergency department.’
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a temporary heart condition that occurs when the heart muscle weakens suddenly. This is what current approaches have done to families like mine. A heart condition caused by witnessing drug-related violence in a hospital corridor. My grandchildren, like so many children affected by drug policy that prioritises ideology over protection, carry disabilities that will last their entire lives.
The Political Influence Shaping Australia’s Approach
Geoff Gallop (Master of Philosophy Social Science 1979), the 27th Premier of Western Australia and Oxford University Rhodes Scholar, introduced the Gallop Government Drug Summit aimed to address WA’s drug issues through comprehensive community consultation and policy recommendations. The summit was shaped by Curtin University’s Simon Lenton, UK Forward Thinking on Drugs, Cheryl Kernot as Project Lead for Rowntree, and Gareth Evans, all connected to George Soros. Gallop’s administration focused on social reform and economic development, with his stated intent being to support civil society institutions seeking a better society, most notably the Global Commission on Drug Policy and the New Democracy Foundation.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy is a George Soros brainchild. It advocates for a human rights-based approach to drug policy, which involves moving from prohibition to regulation, like Australia’s strict regulation of tobacco. That regulatory model has now failed spectacularly because of extraordinarily high pricing of tobacco (one packet of Winfield 20s costs $46.00) and vapes, leading to criminal gangs and retail bombings across the country.
Either at Christmas 2005 or New Year 2006, Premier Gallop attended a drug meeting in London. It’s clear the London meeting had a significant impact on Gallop’s approach to drug policy in WA. After spending time in London with his Oxford friend Tony Blair, Gallop returned to Perth, Western Australia, and immediately resigned from politics on 16 January 2006 due to his plea of mental illness. He publicly addressed mental health struggles to reduce stigma around mental illness. From 2006 to 2015, Gallop was Director of the Graduate School of Government. He became Professor of Sydney University on 15 August 2024.
After his resignation as WA Labor Government Premier, Gallop tells how, on a flight to Sydney, he met Dr Ingrid van Beek, the Director of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. ‘We sat next to each other, and we talked and talked and talked. We just shared so much in common. It was one of those fluky things.’ He fell in love and married Van Beek in 2010.
Dr Van Beek had been Director of the Kirkton Road Drug and Alcohol Clinic. She started work at the Kirkton Road Centre health service in 1987, when the AIDS and heroin epidemics were in full swing.
According to Doctor Alex Wodak, President, The Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform, Simon Lenton is Australia’s leading cannabis authority. Lenton co-edited a book titled ‘Legalising Cannabis: Experiences, Lessons, and Scenarios’ with Tom Decorte and Chris Wilkins, which explores various models of cannabis regulation and their impacts. Lenton is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Health Office of Drug Control Canberra and George Soros. International Harm Reduction Association.
Around 2.8 million Australians use cannabis, making it the most used illicit drug in the country. Cannabis-induced psychosis is diagnosed on the symptoms and criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-5). (‘Former WA premier Geoff Gallop appointed to drug reform think tank’, by Angus Thompson, 23 July 2019.)
The Crisis We’re Not Discussing
The Western Australia Director General of Health, Shirley Bowen, publicly stated that ‘drugs along with aged patients and the flu are the reason for WA’s ambulance ramping and hospital bed crisis’.
The West Australian newspaper has delivered two weeks of unrelenting pressure on WA Premier Cook and the WA disastrous, critically underfunded hospital system. However, the issue of drugs has been completely suppressed. Does The West Australian have drug legalisation lobbyists who have the imprimatur of the new editor, Christopher Dore, and the Seven Media Corporation?
Recent findings on Western Australia’s methamphetamine use, analysing data from the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) programme, found that Western Australia has the highest use of methamphetamine in the country. The study found that poly-drug use is common amongst methamphetamine users. Another key finding is that meth users often reported their use contributed to their offending, with many citing financial need to support their drug use or being under the influence of this drug at the time of offending.
The Tragedies We Cannot Ignore
Two weeks ago, a 31-year-old Perth drug-using mother stabbed her seven-month-old son to death in front of her 13-year-old daughter, who rang 000. The case has spurred an inquiry into the Department of Child Protection, which the Minister for Child Protection referred to the Ombudsman. These are the children affected by drug policy that fails to prevent substance abuse in the first place.
Another cannabis-using mother killed her young daughter and another mother’s son in a car crash. This mother’s case was eventually delivered a court decision after five years, which was a 12-month suspended sentence. I believe this protracted court hearing and finding was to ensure that, whilst the WA Cannabis Party’s Dr Brian Walker’s 2024 Cannabis Legalisation Bill was debated in the WA Upper House, the public could not be informed that this mother had used cannabis.
At the end of 2024 parliamentary debates, Hon Sue Ellery, Leader of the House, gave the decision on cannabis legalisation: ‘On average there are 2,773 new treatment episodes for people in Western Australia presenting for treatment in which cannabinoids are the primary drug of concern. That is a lot, and an economic cost, and it is linked with increasing problems in mental health. For those reasons, the Government will not be supporting the motion.’
Nevertheless, at the last Western Australia and Federal elections, Roger Cook and Albanese gave their preference votes to the Greens and the Cannabis Legalisation Party.
When the System Fails Children Affected by Drug Policy
Prime Minister Albanese has recently called a national inquiry into sex crimes in daycare centres. Two weeks ago, a recently born baby was found dead, wrapped in a cloth in a Perth stormwater drain.
A Port Hedland mother who killed her three children before setting their house on fire sought help from a women’s refuge the night before the tragedy because she was struggling to cope but was turned away because it was full. Her court hearing was told the mother had been ‘grappling unsuccessfully’ with the responsibility of being a mother for some time before she stabbed and strangled her 10-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son and suffocated her four-month-old baby boy.
After she killed her children, the 35-year-old lit fires in the front and back bedrooms. Much of the mother’s adult life had been dysfunctional with violent and abusive relationships, and her early life was marked by extreme trauma which affected her ability to deal with extreme stress and regulate her emotions effectively. When the mother gave birth to her youngest child, she told the hospital that she wanted to stay at a hostel after she was released from the hospital. However, the department refused the request; she was forced to return home. The night before she murdered her children, the mother had gone to a women’s refuge seeking help but was turned away because it was at capacity and didn’t have the staff to look after her children. (‘Mum’s Tragic plea before killing kids’, The West Australian, Saturday, 29 April 2023, page 16.)
Where is the inquiry into the children affected by drug policy that prioritises political ideology over their safety and wellbeing? Where is the accountability for policies shaped by international reform movements funded by figures like George Soros, whose influence on Australian drug policy through organisations like the Global Commission on Drug Policy continues to this day?
These children, these families, deserve better. They deserve a government that prioritises prevention over politics, protection over ideological experimentation. Current approaches have failed our most vulnerable, and they continue to fail them every single day. The families harmed by drug laws that enable rather than prevent substance abuse will continue to grow unless we change course.
The tobacco regulation model has failed. The evidence is mounting. And still, the push for drug legalisation continues, backed by the same networks, the same funding, the same ideology.
By Geraldine Casey
Further reading:
Leave a Reply