Class Action Commenced Against Police Over Illegal Strip Searches
As festival goers battled through the mud, cold and rain on the New South Wales north coast this past weekend to see their favourite bands play at the Splendour in the Grass music Festival, news surfaced that a class action...
NSW Police Are Still Using Sniffer Dogs to Arrest Over Tiny Amounts of Cannabis
Scrolling through the Sniff Off Facebook page, it’s clear from recent posts warning as to the whereabouts of NSW police officers deployed with accompanying drug detecting labradors that this antiquated law enforcement practice is back in full swing. A joint venture...
NSW Government Stalls on Inevitable Drug Reforms: An Interview With NUAA’s Dr Mary Ellen Harrod
Prior to COVID entering our world, the issue of illicit substances and the need to move away from the punitive law enforcement approach the NSW government and most others around the nation are taking to them was front and centre...
The Sluggish Demise of Drug Prohibition Is Gaining Momentum
Right before the pandemic shut down shifted the focus of concern, NSW drug policy was under scrutiny with the then Berejiklian government baulking at pill testing trials to address drug-related deaths at events and rather attempting to shut down the festival industry...
“A Watershed Moment for Drug Policy”: Dr David Caldicott on the ACT Fixed Pill Testing Site
The greenlighting of a six-months trial of a fixed pill testing site in Australia’s capital is a “watershed moment” in terms of how the nation treats illicit substances, according to Dr David Caldicott, a long-term advocate for the nationwide rollout of...
NSW Considers Medical Cannabis Driving Defence: Interview With Former Magistrate David Heilpern
The Turnbull government legalised medicinal cannabis use in 2016, along with the lawful cultivation, manufacture and distribution of it. But, six years on, and drivers who use the medicine continue to be penalised for having traces of it in their...
Drug Law Reformists Call on Albanese to Legalise Recreational Cannabis
The 2022 federal election was significant not only in the turning away from the major parties, the rise of the teal independents via the dethroning of prominent Liberal MPs, and the Greens securing balance of power in the Senate, but...
The ACT Government Has Greenlighted Drug Decriminalisation
The ACT is about to decriminalise the personal possession and use of illicit substances. So, while drug supply will remain a serious crime, the capital will no longer criminally charge people for using certain drugs, in a move akin to...
The Law, Penalties and Defences for Possessing a Commercial Quantity of Unlawfully Imported Border Controlled Drug
A Sydney man arrested and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs has been released on a $1 million security for bail. Police allege that Wade Habkouk, who is the CEO and director of a...
Albanese “Is Not a Prohibitionist at Heart”: PM’s Political Roots Include Drug Law Reform
“The speech made by Anthony Albanese in parliament on 22 March 1999 makes it clear that Australia’s new prime minister is not a prohibitionist at heart,” said Harm Reduction Australia ambassador Dr Alex Wodak. The doctor pointed Sydney Criminal Lawyers in the direction...
