 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here this afternoon. What I'd like to do, obviously, is to formally introduce Director Keroslowski, and then I'll read a prepared statement and then open it up for questions. Is that okay? Everyone's okay with that? We're just about right for everyone at the back of the room. Okay. Just give us a yell when you're ready. You'll have to excuse me, I'm sorry, but I've got the flu. We're good? Yeah. Okay. Good afternoon, and thank you for your attendance today. I would like to formally acknowledge Director Keroslowski from the United States Office of the National Drug Control Policy, Director Keroslowski, and I have today met with members of the Queensland Police Service Senior Executive and other invited guests to discuss the issues facing law enforcement and other government agencies around the harmful drug use and reducing the harmful effects of both illicit and illicit drugs in Queensland. For 27 years, Australia has maintained a coordinated national policy for addressing alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. This national drug strategy is a cooperative venture between Australian state and territory governments and the non-government sector. At the core of this strategy, sorry, at the core of this strategy's success is the maintenance of longstanding partnerships between health agencies and law enforcement, and both of these areas are equally responsible for overseeing the implementation of the national drug strategy through the Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs. These working partnerships between law enforcement bodies and the government agencies are the cornerstone of the Queensland Police Service's strategy in combating dangerous drugs use in this state. The current national drug strategy, 2010 to 2015, continues with a harm minimisation framework underpinned by the three pillars of demand reduction, supply reduction and harm reduction. Law enforcement agencies around Australia continue to face two main challenges at state and national levels. These are alcohol-related violence and monitoring and responding to changing patterns of use and associated harms from illegal drugs, and number two, the expanding cocaine market. Emerging psychoactive substances and pharmaceutical drug misuse are identified emerging trends under the current national drug strategy. Internationally, law enforcement is facing the challenges of new and emerging synthetic drug types along with the unconventional supply rates available to organised syndicates. The Queensland Police Service acknowledges that responding to major and organised crime, particularly in relation to drugs, is one of the most significant challenges we face. Addressing anti-social behaviour and youth violence and applying effective evidence-based drug and alcohol-related traffic, policing strategies are priorities for the Queensland Police Service under this plan. The service continues to re-evaluate our current strategies and this is why meetings like today are such an important part of ongoing responses to tackle these issues head-on. Again, thank you to Director Kerlikowski for visiting us today and thanks to the media for covering this press conference and I'm happy to take any questions as is the Director. What do you plan to do differently, Commissioner? As far as drug use and things that go, is there any radical change coming? Certainly, meetings like today give us an opportunity to, in a very, very short time, exchange ideas with national drug policy in America and I think that certainly the conversations that we had today between ourselves and a range of other government agencies with the Director and his staff have given us insights to the thinking affecting law enforcement in America. The Director has a very long history in law enforcement and I think it's interesting that he had 37 years at various levels in various police departments and he now holds this prestigious appointment within the Obama administration relating to drug policy and I think that that's a seminal point in his visit that a person from a background in law enforcement is given such a high office and a high honor. I think it's the learnings that we get from that that are most important about today's meeting. Well, it was important, I mean this is a very quick trip but one of the important parts of the trip was to make sure that we came to Brisbane and to make sure that we came to see some of the programs and projects that the Queensland police have done so in Melbourne. They had the first international conference on law enforcement and health, how to combine the law enforcement groups with public health to begin to reduce problems of drug use, violence, etc. Queensland has already been doing that. They have this rich history of cooperation that we really wanted to see. The other important part was to be able to come and learn from and listen to the people around the table to tell us about what they have done to reduce alcohol impaired driving, which is a significant problem in the United States and really more importantly for us right now what they've been doing to reduce drug driving. So, you know, this was a great opportunity for us and we wouldn't have missed it for anything and we appreciate the invitation from the commissioner and the and the department. How big a problem is methamphetamine where you come from and do you see that problem here? Well, I can tell you in the states that methamphetamine has been a significant problem. We're fortunate in in two ways. One is that we've received we've seen about a 50% reduction over the last five or six years in methamphetamine consumption in the United States and we've also seen a reduction in cocaine use in the United States during that same period. So oftentimes people say gee there's nothing you can do about these drugs people are always going to do it. When you look at those numbers it tells you that these kinds of combined works of public health and law enforcement can make a difference. It's widely circulated now that people are saying that the war on drugs has failed. What do you see we need to do differently now that hasn't been done in the last 10 to 15 years or do you agree with that? Well one we made it very clear actually and I've had the job now working for the president for three and a half years to not call it a war on drugs and to say that that really is the wrong description. The drug problem in all of our countries is incredibly complex and it's very difficult and a short-term war on drugs bumper sticker really doesn't work and I was asked well what bumper sticker are you going to use and frankly I said look I think the American public is ready to have a dialogue and a discussion around a really difficult issue and it doesn't require some some answer that doesn't work so the president's drug policy and drug strategy is a very balanced very comprehensive strategy and we're pleased to see some reductions in some of the drugs prescription drugs on the other hand and certainly marijuana use among our youth are great concern. Correct me from what wrong I think last week in last week's elections two more states voted to decriminalize marijuana use. Do you see that as being the trend moving forward towards more decriminalization and less sort of hard policing? The vote that was taken in the two states in Washington state and in Colorado is actually to legalize the recreational use of marijuana to not only that it is not a violation of law to possess marijuana that actually there would be some type of commodization of these kinds of products. Whether or not that actually occurs as we've seen with lots of other initiatives and propositions that some of our western states are able to do as it works its way either through the court process or through the legislative process we'll kind of wait and see on that. We think it's a significant mistake. President could not have been more clear opposing the legalization of drugs. The vice president's statements could not have been more clear about opposing legalization of drugs and I would think that as people actually get to see and hear and understand the science and not the slick ads that are put on to legalize drugs that they realize that you know as a way forward to keep people healthy and safe making drugs more widely and easily available is not an answer. You know that was a great myth also in the ads and it said gee if you're if you're not arresting people for small amounts of marijuana then you can really go out and solve murders. That made very little sense. Our jails aren't overflowing and they aren't stuffed with people for small amounts of drugs anywhere in the United States. That might have been true but it ended around 1995 and other crimes and other charges ended up increasing our prison population. So I don't know of any any department in the United States which is using some inordinate amount of resources to apprehend adults for small amounts of drugs. It just really isn't happening but it was a great part of the advertising campaign that was successful in those two states. Is there a bit of a problem with bikies here in the southeast? What's the states doing to sort of tackle that problem there? The problem is our low motorcycle gangs and often we found in this country a direct link between those groups and the production or the growing of illicit drugs and it is an issue here that we work very hard to to address. It's less of an issue now in the United States than it was with the different outlaw motorcycle gangs and their close involvement with with drugs. Those that that are still there and still exist are not quite to the same levels that we see either here in Australia in Canada or in Europe. But their involvement early on with methamphetamine which was an early early association of motorcycle groups but it isn't it isn't quite maybe it's because our roads are more dangerous and they're not out on our motorcycles. I don't know. Do you believe Mexican cartels are making money out of Australia? I've seen the published reports here about the cartels and the selling and I've seen the kilo price of cocaine here in Australia. It's unbelievable how high the price is. I mean one is it's very difficult of course given the continent and to actually smuggle it in so that you increase the price. What is the price comparison? What is the kilo of cocaine? I think we're at 40, 50 or 60 thousand dollars depending on purity and the time and the in the particular part of the state and I think you're well over 200 thousand dollars per kilo. Is Australia more attractive do you think? Well I think for some that can bring it in but the Mexican drug cartels have actually their influence whether it's within the United States, Europe, Africa, etc is a significant concern. President Calderon has been very courageous in taking those issues on and we've been very supportive of what he's done and actually it looks like as he leaves off us that that he's actually after after these hard hard years really begun to make some success. When you look at the reductions now this year in violence and other things taking on those transnational organized crimes groups or syndicates is important for a law enforcement throughout the world. There is some evidence of direct links with local syndicates with other South American cartels links to activities here in Queensland and elsewhere from the East and Seaboard of Australia. What advice could you share with local law enforcement on dealing with those operators? Certainly I'll defer first to the commissioner. Thank you and very obviously very interestingly we work very very closely with a range of agencies including American based agencies in terms of intelligence on drug use and drug trafficking. Certainly this is an area where we do get strong support through the Australian federal police as well so this is not just us dealing directly it is a joined up arrangement for intelligence gathering and that's the main way that the United States certainly helps Australia in trying to defeat that type of Yeah it's everybody's problem and the President Obama released the transnational organized crime strategy a little over a year ago that we were involved along with our national security staff in in putting that strategy together. You think about the global threat to the economy the engagements of all of these organized crime groups in so many crimes not just drug trafficking but extortion kidnapping etc human trafficking you know it's it's to everybody's benefit that the law enforcement cooperation the United States has with Australia and many other countries that we look at these multinational multi-discipline organized crime groups. How successful do you think asset confiscation has been in combating organized crime groups in the U.S. who have substantially made their profits through drug trafficking? There are two parts of that I think the one is that quite often we we focus on the number of arrests and the seizures of drugs and what doesn't get focused on is going after the money both in assets that they've already controlled but also in money that may be through electronic means and others and putting more time energy and focus and international cooperation in cutting off the head of the snake which is the funding is going to be really important and that's part of the President's transnational organized crime strategy is to allow the Treasury Department and to give the Treasury Department greater support for identifying assets and identifying groups organized crime groups to go after their funds. I think we should all look at how we cut off the assets. Is there one worldwide sort of Mr. Big sort of Pablo Escobar figure that you guys are looking for at the moment is there one particular or is there multiple? I think the job's open to a lot of people and it doesn't care much about country of origin or race or ethnicity but I think that as countries come together like-minded countries come together to deal with these things and then also to bring to the public's attention the fact that these groups can become not just organized crime enterprises but they can become state actors and that threat is not always as recognized in my estimation at the level that it should be. It causes significant harm and significant cost to every taxpayer and to citizens and to governments. You say state actors and that immediately brings to mind we're talking about various South American and Central American countries. Are you referring also to the U.S. then? Well I think that I'm actually referring more to some of the areas in West Africa, Guinea-Bissou in particular has been often highlighted as having all the earmarks of a narco state and yet my visits in Peru, Guatemala, Colombia, etc. I see leadership in those countries in Colombia being an example of not wanting to allow these organized groups to become entrenched but it's very difficult. I mean it takes a huge commitment of resources, it takes incredible courage and you only need to look at and as you well know I mean far better than I do the loss of the lives of journalists who have had the courage in these countries to report on cartels and organized crime. If it wasn't for them bringing it though to the attention of the public and frankly the attention of elected officials I'm not sure there would be as much courage in to take them on as has been noted. Going back to the Australian context one of the things that has been identified is an expanding cocaine market. You have had a decreasing cocaine market since I said you said what do you think are the key levers that you can pull? If I had that magic answer believe me I'd be a consultant doing something else right now but I think two things have gone on. One is I don't know anyone that doesn't consider Columbia a success. Safety, security, economy, the reduction of cocaine production from being first in the world to now number three, the increased interdiction along the east pack and the Caribbean, increased border security on our southwest border. So those are all the interdiction and the kind of the hard stuff. If you look at the soft things that I think are just equally or sometimes I'd almost say more important it's about the education and the information. You cannot go into an African American community in the United States without people telling you the dangers of crack cocaine. It is widely known and widely understood and those educational both formal and informal and grassroots educational programs about the dangers of a drug and what the cost can be in lives and the cost to young people have been equally important. So it's important that we look at reducing the demand for drugs through prevention. We interdict the drugs that are coming in and we also look at what kind of treatment programs can be available for those people that have become drug abusers and drug addicts. It's a different way selling that message to the wealthier demographic that tends to be to consume cocaine, isn't it? You know one of the things that Columbia did which was pretty interesting is that they have these beautiful prints that they have done on eight or 12 indigenous plants to the country of Columbia. Beautiful, beautiful plants none of which exist today because coca was planted in place and those plants are completely gone. And if you think about younger, wealthier, more environmentally conscious young people, you know you don't see them putting cigarettes in their mouth, you don't see you know you really see this in them. If you can explain that purchasing cocaine also leads to these kinds of devastations. It's just another different way of getting a message to a different demographic and we have to be smart about how we do our messaging but the messaging has to be fair and accurate. It can't be a scare tactic. Statistically surely this, the focus has got to go to pharmaceutical drugs now as well with the statistics coming out of the United States about how many people are dying because of pharmaceutical drugs. Do you see that same problem happening here? I do. Yeah, absolutely. I mean the misuse of pharmaceuticals, legal pharmaceuticals is a problem for us and it's one that again through education, education of doctors, pharmacists and health professionals is very, very important in trying to combat that issue. Does the pressure have to go to the pharmaceutical companies there that I don't know better control of these drugs? I think, I truly think the answer is, I mean the pharmaceuticals companies make it because of the need for these types of drugs. It is the misuse and the misdiagnosis and the misdiagnosis of the illness or it is the prescription that is inappropriately given that causes the problem and then there is the misuse of the prescription by the user at the end. Often because they are an addict and unable to control their urges and that's where the education issue is so important right across the board and that there are programs in place to deal with that. Police law enforcement, government policy can't address all of this. It's got to be personal responsibility and understanding of the implications that will have an effect overall. It's been a huge issue for us 16,000 deaths a year and due to prescription drugs and we know that about 70% of the people that begin to abuse a prescription drug get it from a family member or friend. That means it's not coming across a border. It's not being sold behind a gas station. It's coming out of a medicine cabinet. What was the one drug that really sort of... It's the opiate painkillers, the powerful opioid painkillers. I wouldn't name one in particular. There are several that come up quite often but getting people to clean out their medicine cabinets in a safe way and get rid of those expired and unneeded drugs, educating prescribers about what are the proper dosage rates and the dosage. It's a huge problem for us in the United States right now also with our active duty military and our returning veterans. So dealing with the prescription drug issue has been a focus of this administration since I took office. Is there any information you can give us comparing the level of use in Australia to the level of use in the U.S. for innocent drugs? We do have that data and based upon the survey instruments done here in Australia are a little bit different and the timeliness of those surveys about drug use are a little bit different but there are some comparisons. I'm happy to do that. We can get that to you, David. I think the key part is that sometimes people think that there's a country that is a production country and there's a country that's a transit country and there's the countries like the Americans that are big consumers of drugs and frankly those definitions are just really outdated. Every country, and I visited now 20 and three and a half years, I haven't been to a country in which there isn't a consumption problem of drugs that is causing public health and safety problems for that country regardless of the economy. Is there any one or two specific elements that you will take away from your talks with the director today that you will try or look at in terms of our drug policy here in Queensland? Certainly I think the focus on education and early intervention is critical and that's an area that I think that we can always improve in. The second one is the discussions we've had about alcohol fuel violence particularly amongst our young people and the similarities between the American culture and I think the Australian culture that use alcohol freely. Certainly there are issues there that we still I think have to work very very hard on to try and protect our youth, get them through those exuberant years without injuring themselves in a way that could be devastating to their families into the future. A classic example and we talked about this with the director is the forthcoming schoolies on the Gold Coast and the way that often parents quite well-intentioned parents and quite obviously what we would say are very protective parents suddenly turning around and buying hundreds of dollars worth of alcohol for their children to enjoy at schoolies. I mean it's a false premise and I think people need to rethink those ideas if they truly wish to make sure that their children get through schoolies unharmed and have an enjoyable time. Speaking of schoolies, are you ramping up numbers of officers this year as schoolies? Is there anything that you're going to put your own brand on as commissioning this year? No, it's our response to schoolies is a well-tried formula. It works very very well. I think we've seen what we would say are very successful in terms of mitigating the harm that is potentially there. We work very very hard. This year though we are very very concerned about the phenomenon of basically balcony surfing where the kids you know crowd out onto balconies of high rises. We don't want any tragedies and we'll be working very hard to make sure that building inspectors and certainly building managers control that particular issue on the coast. A message to parents about you know alcohol and buying alcohol for kids? A very strong message. Just don't do it. I mean the kids have the right to enjoy themselves and we all understand that and they will try alcohol. We know that but but in a reasonable amount and in a reasoned way and with the support of their their mates looking after them. I think that is that they're the critical factors and I'd encourage parents not to buy large amounts of alcohol. I think it's absolutely the wrong thing to do. There are so many other things that the young people can do to enjoy themselves on the coast during that that wonderful week which is school. We've seen this instance where students from one of the most prestigious schools in Hildes have after they've fallen and ended up at the clubhouse of an outlaw motorcycle gang. Are you concerned within some quarters of the the company that's obviously organised is the social acceptability of taking young people to a venue like that knowing full well what it is? I have no understanding of what knowledge the young people themselves had of the premises that they were going to or who organised it. I think it's very disappointing that that someone would organise such a venue for people from you know any school any high school of young people who are at that impressionable age. I don't think it was the right thing to do and I certainly think that in future people need to be more careful about the arrangements they make with perhaps third party organisers. Do you think there's a potential for it to sort of glamourise the OMCGs in a way if whatever company is that medium between the children and the venue is picking venues like that? Perhaps that was the intent of the company that did it or whoever made those arrangements but certainly I think any thinking person in the community knows there's absolutely nothing glamorous about OMCGs. The CMC's review released its report on use of tasers within the Queensland Police Service. Have you had a chance to have a look at those statistics? Only briefly I can't quote verbatim of the statistics but the report is available if you'd like specific details from it. It's basically saying that the status quo remains. There is concerns about the multiple use or multiple cycling of tasers on some people who we've had to deal with in that way. Certainly each one of those is looked at very very carefully. We have a very strong governance process as you all know over each use of tasers and we obviously check the electronic records as well to make sure that the description given by the officers or the person who's been tasered about what occurred can be backed up by that electronic record. That's a very important part of the safety net. We also do random audits of taser usage using the electronic record as well. Has there been any examples where an officer has been disciplined the taser into someone multiple times? Certainly there have been instances where officers have been given counselling and extra training because of the way that the taser has been used but we reiterate that the taser is a very very important tool in our arsenal of non-lethal force. Certainly it's a very very important tool to stop major assaults on our injuries to our officers and it's one that we're not about to renege on. Is it still the case that every officer that actually gets a taser is hit with it beforehand and how it feels like? No, they're allowed to voluntarily participate in the actual use of a taser but not all of them do and I agree that they shouldn't have to. It's certainly not something. Do you think that you know if someone's going to use a taser that they should actually experience what it feels like to know? You don't think that that would be more sort of responsible if people are aware of what it feels like? We certainly don't do it with our glocks. I don't think we do it with our tasers. Absolutely, well so is a taser. The taser's non-lethal though, isn't it? Absolutely, that's what our intent is with the taser is to stop people being using force that's unreasonable towards our officers. You don't think that every officer should experience what it feels like to be hit with a taser? Only if they voluntarily want to. Are you surprised that overall taser usage has gone up following the introduction of the taser policy? I think you've got to be careful about what type of taser use we're talking about here. Presentations are still the major use, meaning simply that the taser is withdrawn, appointed and the warning given. Many of the people that have to be addressed in this way simply comply at that point. That's the greatest use of our tasers. Rarely do we have to in real terms rarely do we have to actually use the taser but it is effective in stopping people particularly again and this is linked to the drug issue, people who are drug affected and that's born out by the CMC report again that many of those people are incapacitated in some way by or affected in some way by not just the taser but by drugs. Indigenous groups are highly represented in statistics. Is that concerning to you? Certainly the use of tasers in Indigenous particularly Indigenous interactions is of concern to me but again I say that it's used only in those circumstances where the officers have a significant fear of personal injury and unfortunately that is the case sometimes in their interactions with Indigenous Queenslanders. The tasers have cameras on? We've trialled cameras and certainly the jury's still out on that. One of the downsides of cameras on tasers is that they only are activated when the taser is drawn. Most of the issue that a taser is drawn for is not captured by the video footage or any audio. It is a real issue that the only bit that you actually see as a trait, the taser being presented towards the individual and the warnings that are given at that point in time. It is then the training for the use of our tasers is to immediately drop the taser towards the ground after it's been discharged because of a range of technical reasons. Again that means that the video is pointing to the ground. So the value, the jury is very much out on the value of the video footage from taser cams themselves. It's an effectiveness issue in relation to them. That's my understanding of the research that we've done to this point. That's a really interesting point and we invest a lot of time in training our people in communication tactics that actually try and de-escalate an issue but at a point in time if our officers are about to be attacked or basically in fear of their lives, a taser, the use of a taser is a great option for our people to have. Folks, thanks very much. I really appreciate your time today and again I'd like to just publicly thank the director and his staff for sharing this time with us. We are very, very grateful. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner.