Removing Criminal Sanctions for Drug Use: An Interview With Australia21’s Dr Alex Wodak
“We call on Australia’s federal, state and territory governments to treat drug use primarily as a health and social issue and to remove criminal sanctions for personal use and possession,” begins think tank Australia21’s recently released fourth report on illicit...
Fighting Police Corruption: An Interview With Former Queensland Sergeant Rick Flori
In January 2012, a pair of Queensland police officers arrested Noa Begic on the street in the Gold Coast. Charged with public nuisance, the 21-year-old chef was handcuffed and then taken to the basement of the Surfers Paradise police station. With...
Challenging the NSW Police Shutdown: An Interview With Bohemian Beatfreaks’ Erik Lamir-Pike
The NSW Police Force (NSWPF) is continuing what can only be described as its assault on festivals. Last Friday, it publicly announced that it was withdrawing its support for and blocking the Bohemian Beatfreaks festival that’s due to be held...
Test Pills & Save Lives: An Interview With Australian Greens Leader Richard Di Natale
This year’s music festival season began with an avoidable tragedy, as two young Australians died after taking drugs at Sydney’s Defqon.1 festival in September. The saturation policing and drug detection dogs at the event failed to save their lives. A pill...
Prohibition Causes the Harm: An Interview With Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform
There’s a rising awareness that the century-old system of drug prohibition is failing. It’s evident in the global moves to legalise cannabis, the internationally-lauded Portuguese drug decriminalisation model and the widespread calls to start treating drug use as a health issue, not...
Empowering Adolescent Girls: An Interview With Plan Australia’s Holly Crocket
Kampala is ranked amongst the fastest growing cities in Africa, and reported crime is on the rise Cases of robbery, rape and harassment are common. This has led to a situation where 80 percent of the adolescent girls living in the...
The Ethics of Covert Operations: An Interview With Ex-Undercover Operative Dr Clive Harfield
The purpose of covert operations is for law enforcement agents to obtain evidence that would not otherwise be accessible using conventional investigatory methods. This secretive acquiring of evidence is meant to be done in a lawful manner, so that it...
Pill Testing, Not Penalties: An Interview With Take Control’s Kieran Palmer
Two young people died after taking drugs at the Defqon.1 festival in September. At the time, there was saturation policing at the music festival. There were 194 police officers deployed at the event, some of whom were accompanied by drug detection dogs....
Re-Radicalising Mardi Gras: An Interview with Pride in Protest’s Bridget Harilaou
The first Sydney Mardi Gras parade was a protest march for human rights. Members of the local LGBTIQ community walked down Oxford Street calling for an end to the criminalisation of their lives and the freedom to openly express their...
Preventing Violence Against Women: An Interview With Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly
Ten women have been killed violently in Australia so far this month. And according to Destroy the Joint’s Counting the Dead Women Australia project, that brings the total number of women murdered nationwide due to violence against women this year...
