On Friday morning, Sir Richard Branson launched Uniting’s Fair Treatment campaign at Sydney Town Hall. The well-known drug reform advocate threw his support behind the campaign that’s pushing for the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for personal use, as well as increased investment in harm reduction. The church-led campaign which is calling on the NSW government ...
Category: Drug Offences
Australia’s First Cannabis Medicine: An Interview With Little Green Pharma’s Fleta Solomon
Locally-grown and produced medicinal cannabis products are finally available on the Australian market. Western Australian company Little Green Pharma is the first amongst a number of producers to deliver the long-awaited local product since cannabis medicines were legalised. However, this highly-anticipated development has somewhat flown under the radar, as Little Green Pharma made the announcement on ...
Cannabis Legalisation Is Inevitable: An Interview With ADLaRI’s Ben Mostyn
Global drug prohibition had its beginnings over a century ago. And the intensification of its law enforcement aspect – known as the war on drugs – was launched by Nixon in 1971. In NSW, this prohibitive system is reflected in the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985. Section 10 of the Act outlaws drug possession. This ...
The Cannabis Climate in Australia: An Interview With SA Cannabis Council’s Matthew Rowland
Attitudes to the cannabis plant are rapidly changing around the globe. Recreational cannabis is now legal in nine US states, while Canada is set to legalise it nationwide. And medicinal cannabis is now readily available in 31 jurisdictions throughout the US. The tide is beginning to turn in Australia too. Greens leader Richard Di Natale started a ...
NSW Police Force Doubles Strip Searches
The NSW Police Force has nearly doubled the number of strip searches it carries out after positive indications from drug detection dogs. In 2016, police officers carried out around 590 strip searches after an initial search turned up nothing, while in 2017 the number skyrocketed to 1,124. Of all the strip searches that were carried out ...
Calls to Stop Baseless Ban on Amyl Nitrite
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has just released an interim decision that would see amyl nitrite and other nitrite inhalants banned across Australia. The proposal would move these drugs into schedule 9 of the Poisons Standard along with substances such as heroin. Amyl nitrite is the most well-known amongst a range of alkyl nitrite inhalants ...
Legalising Personal Cannabis Use: An Interview With ACT Labor MP Michael Pettersson
ACT Labor MLA Michael Pettersson introduced a draft of a private member’s bill into the territory’s Legislative Assembly on 19 September that would effectively legalise the personal use and possession of cannabis. The Drugs of Dependence (Personal Cannabis Use) Amendment Bill 2018 would amend local criminal laws to allow for the personal possession of up to ...
Dr Katelaris Spent Four Months in Prison for Possessing Massage Oil
Renowned medicinal cannabis practitioner Dr Andrew Katelaris was arrested in April after being pulled over by police on the Central Coast. The doctor was charged with supply of a prohibited drug, as an officer found two small bottles of what was presumed to be cannabis oil. Dr Katelaris was also charged with drug possession, as ...
Richmond’s Safe Injecting Room Saves Lives: An Interview With NRCH’s Demos Krouskos
The North Richmond Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) opened its doors on 30 June, and it’s already been hailed a success. Over its short time in operation, staff at the facility have treated over 140 people for potentially fatal overdoses. The MSIR is operating out of the North Richmond Community Health (NRCH) site. And the response of ...
Statistics on NSW Drugs Busts Exaggerated
The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) has announced it has mistakenly double-counted a large number of drug busts over the past seven years – an admission which many believe further bolsters the argument that the war on drugs is futile. BOCSAR director Dr Don Weatherburn admitted fault for the exaggerated data, which experts ...