Spike in Prohibited Drug Use and Associated Crime Intensifies Calls for Legalisation
The Australian Crime Intelligence Commission has yet again consulted the nation’s sewage to find that its people had consumed more than 22.2 tonnes of crystal meth, cocaine, heroin and MDMA over the 12 months to August 2024, which is the...
Alleged Members of Criminal Group Charged with a Range of Serious Offences
Thirteen people are facing criminal charges as police taskforces target an alleged criminal group said to be responsible for a range of serious criminal offences across Sydney. The investigation The New South Wales Crime Command’s Financial Crimes Squad Motor Unit...
NSW Police Use of Drug Dogs and Strip Searches Slammed as Ineffective and Unlawful
Of the 82,471 strip searches NSW police performed over the ten years to 2023, only 11,136, or 13.5 percent turned up an illicit substance. Further, 6,716 of these searches followed a drug dog indication, yet only 2,713 of them, or...
NSW Inquiry into Cannabis Laws Recommends Staged Reforms Leading to Legalisation
The NSW parliamentary inquiry into state laws governing cannabis released its final report on 20 June 2025, and its central issue, that the fairly innocuous psychoactive plant remains illegal, was found to be causing harm in the community and the...
Medicinal Cannabis Drug Driving Defence Introduce in NSW Parliament
New South Wales Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann has long been attempting to address the legal anomaly that sees prescribed users of medicinal cannabis at risk of losing their drivers licence whenever behind the wheel, including when unimpaired. Yet, with the...
A Rise in Nitazene Overdoses Requires Fixed Site Pill Testing and Take-Home Naloxone
The Australian Federal Police issued a warning on Wednesday about the worrying trend in a relatively new type of street drug, a group of synthetic opioids known as nitazenes, being increasingly detected at the border, as well as being available...
South Australia’s Plan to Seize the Assets of Low-Level Drug Offenders is Counterproductive
As other jurisdictions both in Australia and abroad are seeing the sense in drug law reform, with interventions like pill testing trials in multiple Australian states and territories, the South Australian government has come to the conclusion that the best...
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...
