The New South Wales government is running out of time to deliver one of its biggest promised reforms before the March election.
After spending millions on finding a better way to approach illicit drug use in the state, cabinet infighting has stopped any significant change for more than two-and-a-half years.
When former premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the special commission of inquiry into ice and other drugs in November 2018, she insisted it would be "a course of action into the future".
She also added that: "Governments need to rely on experts not on the politics".
Eleven million dollars was spent on the inquiry: 47 days of hearings and round tables were conducted in Sydney and regional areas; 250 submissions were received; and 35 people with lived experience of illicit drug use shared their stories.
The report was delivered to the government in January 2020 with 109 recommendations.
The political landscape then was vastly different to what it had been when the inquiry commenced.
At that time, Ms Berejiklian was under increasing pressure to introduce pill testing and stop the use of sniffer dogs at music festivals after six young people died in NSW.
But the pressure had dramatically subsided by the report's conclusion and the pandemic had started.
Since then, politics has got in the way of change, which has baffled the report's author.
"I'm enormously frustrated … I'm gobsmacked really," Professor Dan Howard, the inquiry's Commissioner said.
"One of the problems is there are a very few number of people in the cabinet who are still living in the 20th century — war on drugs mindset, that is so out of date."
The sticking point has been the push in the report to decriminalise drugs for low level personal use, and instead adopt a health-based approach.
The recommendation is for a drug user to be directed to services rather than the justice system.
It has been impossible for the cabinet to come to a consensus on the recommendation because certain conservative Liberals and some National MPs, who are also demanding increased support in regional areas, oppose it.
As a result, the government has failed to deliver an overarching response to the inquiry it commissioned.
"That's only one or two of the 109 recommendations in this report," Professor Howard said.
"And for all the others to be held up over some niggling about those recommendations is a travesty."
On Sunday, Premier Dominic Perrottet said his government is close to a resolution.
"It's important to take time to get things right," he said.
"I'm very confident we'll have a landing on it soon."
Attorney-General Mark Speakman has been responsible for shepherding through the reforms.
He declined the ABC's request for an interview, but last month was asked about it at budget estimates.
"I accept there is a very lengthy delay in the overall response," he said.
"That's a matter of disappointment to me."
Health Minister Brad Hazzard has also been part of developing a response.
"I think I and Minister Speakman have done everything humanely possible," he said when asked about it budget estimates.
The Opposition is waiting on the government to finalise its response before it states its position.
Labor will take to the election a promise of holding a drugs summit, in the hope of emulating the Bob Carr's success in 1999.
But the inquiry's Commissioner insists the work has already been done and the current government should act before the next election.
"To think that the government we elect doesn't have a drug and alcohol policy is just extraordinary," Professor Howard said.
"Basically my inquiry and its report has done that for them if they just would care to implement it."
