South Australia Proposes Sensible Defence to Drug Driving
Last month, the South Australian Legislative Council voted in favour of an amendment to drug driving legislation that would provide medicinal cannabis users with a defence if they fail a roadside drug test. The Statutes Amendment (Drink and Drug Driving)...
Rohingya Muslims Face Humanitarian Crisis
Violence has yet again erupted in Myanmar’s north western Rakhine state, as Rohingya insurgents carried out a series of coordinated attacks on 30 police posts and an army base on August 25. Staged in the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and...
Trump Fans the Flames of Hate
Joe Arpaio is the former sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona. Under his 24-year tenure as the head of law enforcement, Arpaio was renowned for his sweeps to round up illegal immigrants, as well as for opening Tent City: an...
Redefining Medical Cannabis: An Interview with This Week in Weed TV’s Loren Paul Wiener
Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale moved a disallowance motion through the federal Senate on June 13 this year, which allowed terminally ill patients to import up to three months’ worth of medical marijuana products from overseas. The motion reversed...
Not Guilty of Drug Driving Despite Cannabis in System
Northern Rivers region resident Joseph Carrall was pulled over by NSW police senior constable Chayne Foster on 23 June 2015 for a random drug test. The officer asked the driver whether he’d taken any illicit drugs within the last 48 hours, to...
Digital Surveillance: An Interview with the Cyberspace Law and Policy Community’s David Vaile
Big data is watching you. And you might want to get used to it, because its reach is getting wider. These days, it’s common knowledge that governments, security agencies and even social media companies are monitoring people’s behaviour on the...
New Rules for Disqualified Driving
On 14 August, NSW attorney general Mark Speakman announced a suite of new reforms to driver licence disqualification laws. The changes, that will begin operation in late October, include pathways for driving whilst disqualified drivers to apply for their licence to be reinstated at...
Institutional Abuse of Girls in Australian Detention Centres
A report into Western Australia’s Banksia Hill youth detention centre released last month revealed that a number of girls being detained at the facility were “abruptly moved” from the female accommodation precinct and placed in the male-only Harding unit. This...
Indigenous Nations Secure Their Economic Future
While the Australian government continues to be the only Commonwealth nation not to have established a treaty with First Nations people, some Indigenous nations in northern Queensland have entered into a first of its kind international treaty with a Chinese...
Former Police For Cannabis Legalisation: An Interview with Weeded Warrior’s Damon Adams
Growing concerns over the opium trade were central to the League of Nations establishing the 1925 Geneva Convention, which imposed global restrictions on the production and use of opium and coca. Cannabis was added to the agenda at the last...
