As key national stakeholders embrace a health rather than criminal justice focus for drug users, the two chief executives said political leaders should be guided by evidence.

Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT chief Carrie Fowlie said the ACT had decriminalised cannabis and should keep an open mind when dealing with crystal methamphetamine.

"It's not as radical to say how is that [cannabis] system working, and is it worth looking at expanding our existing drug laws about decriminalisation into other areas?" she said.

Directions chief executive Fiona Trevelyan said it was "absolutely" a conversation that needed to happen, although it was not the top priority for her not-for-profit organisation.

"There needs to be people looking at what the evidence is, as impartially as possible," she said.

"At the moment what I can say is that treatment works, drug courts work, but there needs to be an investment to support this."

Ms Fowlie agreed, saying the first priority was to make sure people could get into help and treatment when they needed to, with the national drug and alcohol care sector estimated by one university to be underfunded by 50 per cent.

National Ice Taskforce head Ken Lay, a former Victoria Police chief commissioner, recently said Australia had not succeeded in managing ice use after "trying to arrest our way out of it" for 10 years, so other solutions needed to be looked at.

Federal Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash has said the taskforce's recommendations were due to be received by the government within days and she would not pre-empt any decisions.

ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said a national ice action strategy, being created through the ice taskforce, would guide the ACT's approach to addressing ice issues.

The ACT now has a range of police and court-based drug diversion programs. A civil fine of $100, with no criminal record, can be handed out for those possessing up to 50 grams of cannabis or no more than two non-hydroponic plants.

One in three people who accessed Directions' Arcadia House residential program last year reported methamphetamine as their primary drug of concern, up from 23 per cent the year before and behind only alcohol.

Portugal has been cast as a leading example for decriminalisation, after they removed criminal sanctions for all drugs, including heroine and ecstasy, in 2001. Use has remained similar but health dangers have dropped sharply, a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Decriminalisation would usually involve no criminal punishment for at least low-level users, but the drug remains illegal and traffickers and dealers remain police targets.