Berkman called for state funding for pill-testing facilities,anti-overdose drugs such as naloxone,opioid substitution therapy and rehabilitation services.

“It’s high time (the state government) listened to the Queensland Productivity Commission’s recommendation to legalise lower-harm drugs like cannabis and MDMA,and reinvested funds into harm reduction and drug support services,” he said.

AQueensland Productivity Commission report in 2020 found a drug crackdown had caused prison overcrowding,while failing to stop people using or supplying.

The Productivity Commission recommended decriminalising and legalising the use of cannabis and MDMA,and removing jail as a sentencing option for the use or possession of higher harm drugs.

Fully legalising and regulating the supply of cannabis and MDMA could deliver $1.2 billion in benefits,the Commission said,and move about $4 billion out of illegal markets,significantly curtailing criminal activity.

But those suggestions were rejected by both Labor and the LNP.

Grassroots Labor members more recentlyurged the party’s MPs to legalise the possession of small quantities of cannabis for personal use - with the push included in the latest state policy platform - but the state government said it had no intention of acting on any of the suggested reforms at this stage.

Despite the prohibitions,the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed 43 per cent of people aged 14 and older had illicitly used a drug in their life.

Cannabis was the most commonly used illicit drug in 2019,with 11.6 per cent of Australians using it in the previous 12 months.