Legalise Drugs to Reduce Violent Crime: An Interview With LEAP’s Greg Denham
One of the unintended consequences of the war on drugs listed in the 2011 Global Commission on Drug Policy report is “the growth of a ‘huge criminal black market’, financed by the risk-escalated profits of supplying international demand for illicit...
Sydney Criminal Lawyer Charged With Assisting Extreme-Risk Inmate Run Drugs
Sydney solicitor Martin Churchill is being held on remand for his alleged involvement in a drug supply syndicate that his client former Brothers 4 Life leader Bassam Hamzy was running out of his cell at Goulburn Supermax prison. Police raided...
The Offence of Drug Supply in New South Wales
A South Australian man has been handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence for selling a range of cannabis-infused products, including fairy-floss, hazelnut spread, lollies and lip balm. 32-year old James Stephen Woodward pleaded guilty in the state’s District Court to...
Police Raid on Nimbin Hemp Embassy: Little More Than a Show of Strength
Stores in California will open at 2am AEST tomorrow morning. And some of the shoppers living in the fifth largest economy in the world will buy legal cannabis to smoke. Meanwhile, there will be other Californians at home, tending to...
Criminal Lawyer ‘Struck Off’ After Being Convicted of Drug Supply
Ugo Parente was employed by a criminal law firm in Liverpool shortly after being admitted as a New South Wales lawyer in 2006. He represented clients in a range of criminal cases and was a vocal anti-drug campaigner. He was...
‘Medicine Man’ Escapes Prison Time for Serious Drug Charges
Veteran medicinal cannabis producer Tony Bower escaped prison time when he was sentenced for commercial drug cultivation, along with other serious drug offences, at Port Macquarie District Court last Monday. Known locally as the Medicine Man, Mr Bower turned himself...
A Healer, Not a Dealer: Jenny Hallam Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges
When the Turnbull government passed an amendment bill in February 2016 that legalised “the cultivation and production of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal and scientific purposes”, it was an admission that medicinal cannabis is a valid treatment that patients use....
Foreigner Allowed to Stay in Australia Despite Drug Supply Conviction
The Department of Home Affairs outlines on its website that since amendments were made to the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) back in November 2014, the number of noncitizens who’ve had their visas cancelled on character grounds has increased by over 1,400...
Beyond Pill Testing: Calls to Legalise and Regulate MDMA
As far as regularly used licit and illicit drugs go, pure MDMA is one of the least dangerous around. This is an idea that might take some by surprise considering the deaths of five young people – who at least thought they...
NSW Police Treat Strip-Searches As Routine Procedure
The use of strip searches by the NSW Police Force (NSWPF) has recently skyrocketed. Over the last four years, strip search use has risen by close to 47 percent, with 3,735 carried out in the year 2014-15, while 5,483 people...
