“The Majority of Strip Searches Are Illegal”: An Interview with Redfern Legal Centre’s Sam Lee
The NSW Police Force conducted 2,487 strip searches in the field across this state over the financial year 2022-23. And of these searches 13.8 percent were conducted upon First Nations people, despite the Indigenous community only accounting for 3.4 percent...
Prohibition is Failing to Reduce the Social, Economic and Health Risks of Illicit Drugs
Federal law enforcement agencies are boasting of two “major drug seizures” during a 48 hour “blitz” at Sydney Airport from 21 to 23 September 2024. But drug reform experts assert that such “victories” are merely a pin prick to the...
The Futile War on Drugs Continues to Fuel Violent Crime and Endanger the Public
New South Wales police are claiming that recent raids on 20 homes across Sydney in which ‘underworld figures’ are believed to reside has effectively dismantled an alleged organised crime network labelled as ‘The Commission’. However, there are fears the raids...
NSW Government’s Drug Diversion Scheme is an Abject Failure
The Early Drug Diversion Initiative that was quietly implemented by the Minns government early this year, has again been found to be an abject failure, and no one who’s been paying attention to the drug law reform debate in NSW...
Germany Sets Cannabis Driving Limits, While NSW Continues to Unfairly Criminalise Users
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier signed off on legislation a fortnight ago to set a limit for driving under the influence of cannabis, with the new legal limit that’s now taken effect being 3.5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood....
Former Magistrate Heilpern Tells It Straight on Parochial NSW Cannabis Prohibition
When former NSW Lismore Magistrate David Heilpern gave up the gavel a few years back, the NSW Northern Rivers community were saddened to see him go, as instead of applying major party ethics at the bench, he was a judicial...
NSW Government Re-Commits to Failed Zero Tolerance Approach Ahead of Drug Summit
NSW is so ready for drug law reform that it hurts to watch a party like NSW Labor come to power, with many members, just like all the NSW Greens, having been actively campaigning on the need for reform for...
NSW Refuses to Decriminalise Cannabis, Despite Top Lawyers Telling Inquiry It’s High Time
Established in March this by the Premier and Finance Committee, the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the state’s regulatory framework for cannabis has as a chief concern whether to decriminalise the widely recreationally used, yet still illegal, psychoactive plant. Yet, on...
Lifesaving Naloxone: The Free, Over-the-Counter Potential Antidote to Synthetic Opioid Overdose
Overdose deaths have been on the rise over recent months as a new type of highly potent synthetic opioid has hit the streets that’s even more deadly than fentanyl, which was the last extra strong synthetic opioid that started being...
NSW Drug Summit Agenda: Decriminalisation, Drug Detection Dogs and Deemed Supply
The Minns government has finally announced it will be holding its preelection promised NSW Drug Summit, which will comprise of a four day forum with two regional dates set for October, along with two dates of hearings to be held...
