Former Philippines President Faces Trial Over Drug War Killing Spree
The fact that former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, who on taking office in June 2016, launched a drug war comprised of mass extrajudicial killings that continued until he left office in June 2022, is now in the custody of the...
Drug Summit Recommends Prohibiting Sniffer Dogs and Strip Searches at Music Festivals
The last week released NSW Drug Summit 2024 report recommended 56 priority actions be undertaken in this state to improve the issue of illicit drugs and the harms associated, with the final one being the cessation of the use of...
Reforms Recommended by the NSW Drug Summit Are Long Overdue
The 2024 New South Wales Drug Summit report was released on 3 April 2025. It recommends 56 priority actions are taken, including some prominent long-term drug law reforms, like enacting a drug driving defence for users of medicinal cannabis, the...
Exorbitant Tobacco Taxes Lead to Organised Crime and Endanger the Public
The recent seizure of $35 million dollars in tobacco plants in Victoria is just the latest incident in the burgeoning black market tobacco trade in Australia - a trade that has sprung from increasingly exorbitant tobacco taxes and negatively affected...
NSW Pill Testing Is Welcomed, But No Substitute for Robust Drug Law Reform
A government-sanctioned pill testing trial happened at the two-day Yours and Owls music festival held in Wollongong last weekend. So, for the first time ever in the state of NSW, festivalgoers were able to have their illegal drugs tested for...
New South Wales to Finally Trial Pill Testing
The first festival to participate in a New South Wales pill testing trial has been announced, following recommendations stemming from the state’s drug summit. The Yours and Owls festival in Wollongong this spring will be the first festival in New...
NSW Labor Is Continuing to Refuse Major Drug Law Reform Despite Election Promises
According to veteran NSW drug law reformist Dr Alex Wodak, it’s “an open secret that most of the NSW cabinet now support major drug law reform”. This suggests that the recent 2024 NSW Drug Summit was “designed to not recommend...
NSW Government Finally Agrees to Trial Pill Testing at Music Festivals
The Minns government announced on Thursday, 19 December, that it “will commence a music festival-based pill testing trial in early 2025”, with the aim of reducing “risks and harms associated with illicit drug use”, and with this, the decade-long refusal...
NSW Fails to Embrace Harm Minimisation, Preferring to Continue the Futile War on Drugs
This week’s New South Wales Drug Summit gave many people hope that our state would finally move away from the failed war on drugs and embrace drug minimisation measures such as decriminalisation and pill testing. But drug law reform experts...
Verdict Is In: The 2024 NSW Drug Summit Was Designed to Be an Abject Failure
“Nothing worthwhile ever comes out of an echo chamber,” said NSW premier Chris Minns, as he opened two days of NSW Drug Summit proceedings on Gadigal land at Sydney’s ICC on 4 December 2024. “We want different perspectives. We want...
