Your Guide to New South Wales Heroin Laws
The use of heroin in Australia peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, however there are small but persistent group of users, often from marginalised backgrounds. According to the latest national statistics just over 1% of Australians have used...
Your Guide to New South Wales Cocaine Laws
Cocaine use is on the rise in Australia with the latest national statistics finding 11% of Australians have used cocaine in their lifetime and 4% have used in the past 12 months. Here’s a summary of the laws, penalties and...
What Amounts to a ‘Large Commercial Quantity’ of Prohibited Drugs in New South Wales?
Police have charged a 19-year old man with a serious drug offences after 120 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $60 million was allegedly discovered in a shipping container at Port Botany in Sydney. Manner of detection...
What Drug Diversion Programs Are Available in New South Wales?
If you have been charged with a drug offence or your offending is related to drug-related issues, you may be able to avoid traditional criminal justice processes through caution or diversion schemes. Here’s what you need to know. Cannabis Cautioning...
Mark Standen: Corrupt Crime Commission Czar
A young schoolboy who aspired to be a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot could not have dreamed his adult life would be entangled with Dutch drug cartel godfathers, semi-trailer drug manufacturing operations, millions of dollars in cash. But budding...
The Offence of Supplying a Prohibited Drug Causing Death in New South Wales
The Queensland government recently approved pill testing services in the state. The move follows the success of fixed site drug services in the ACT, and a number of successful trials involving mobile pill testing at music festivals. And while other...
Authorised Psychiatrists Will Soon Be Allowed to Prescribe MDMA and Psilocybin
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced on 3 February that two popular recreationally used illicit substances, MDMA and psilocybin, will be available to specifically authorised psychiatrists to prescribe to patients for certain mental health conditions. Better known as party drug ecstasy, MDMA...
Ecstacy and Magic Mushrooms to be Approved for Treatment
In a major win for those suffering from chronic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has added Psilocybin - or magic mushrooms – and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, or ‘ecstacy) to Schedule 8 (Controlled Substance) of the Poisons...
The Law, Defences and Penalties for Large Commercial Drug Supply in NSW
A former ABC news presenter was refused bail in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, 8 December 2022 after being charged with a string of drug offences arising from raids on two Sydney Hotels. 52-year old Ashley Hall from Burwood...
The History of Drug Criminalisation in the Western World
The first importers and suppliers of what are now classed as illegal drugs were not your typical criminals, but a group of nations, called Great Britain, Portugal, France and the United States of America. The Opium war Britain actually started...
