The party’s civil and political rights policy group has stated the current legislative approach to dealing with drug dependency and abuse was “ineffective, inappropriate and unfair”.

The group has called on party members to support a harm minimisation approach instead and make it party policy to legalise and regulate cannabis 

The group’s motion also calls for the use of other illicit drugs and small-volume possession to be decriminalised.

If the Labor Party wins government at the next election, the group also wants it to:

Labor state secretary Karelle Logan said the Tasmanian branch had a number of policy action caucuses that submitted motions like any other branch of the party.

Other groups included Rainbow Labor, Labor’s Environmental Action Network and Labor for Refugees.

She said motions from all caucuses would be debated from the floor of the conference by delegates.

The party was heavily criticised during the dying days of the 2010 election when it used robocalls to tell voters that the Greens wanted to legalise drugs, including heroin. Labor’s justice spokeswoman Lara Giddings said this year that, if elected in 2018, the party would decrim­inalise cannabis use and possession for medicinal reasons.

The state conference will be held in Queenstown on November 12 and 13.

The state Liberal Party will hold their conference the weekend before in Launceston on November 5 and 6.

Both federal leaders are expected to attend the respective party conferences.