Paramedics Don’t Call Police Over Illicit Drug-Related Ambulance Call-Outs
NSW deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame recently recommended that pill testing services be rolled out at festivals and the use of drug detection dogs be dropped. She came to these conclusions as a result of her investigation into drug-related deaths...
Is It a Crime to Import Cigarettes into Australia?
The tax on tobacco in Australia is astronomical, pushing the average price of a cigarette packet beyond forty dollars in recent months. The tax has been justified on public health grounds, and has been partially responsible for significantly reducing the...
Straight Talking Cannabis: An Interview With LoudCloudHealth’s Bojana Petkovic
Fibromyalgia is a medical condition that intensifies pain. Characterised by widespread musculoskeletal agony, fibro is often accompanied by fatigue, sleep and mood issues. It’s more common in women than men. And there’s no known cure for this neurological health disorder....
The Law, Defences and Penalties for Drug Supply in New South Wales
A young woman has been charged with drug supply after allegedly being found with 1000 MDMA (‘ecstasy’) tablets at a music festival. New South Wales police officers are reported to have found 800 tablets in the woman’s bra and 200...
The Wild Horses Sting? Police Breath and Drug Test Patrons Evacuating Festival
At around 9.30 am on Monday 9 December, word went around punters camped out at the Wild Horses festival in Victoria’s Marysville that an announcement had been made regarding an alleged police order that the site be immediately evacuated due...
Drug Policing Causes Most of the Harms: An Interview With Former Police Sergeant Greg Denham
Last August marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant music festivals of all time, Woodstock. The four day event involved the coming together of close to half a million people, and as is well-known, the hippies that...
The Focus Should Be on Reducing Deaths: An Interview With Jennie Ross-King
Last summer’s music festival season was unnecessarily devastating. Five young Australians died in drug-related circumstances either trying to avoid police detection or from taking drugs that they had no way of ascertaining the contents of. Harm reduction experts have been...
Drug Rehabilitation Programmes Reduce Reoffending Rates
The ACT will begin a new trial for drug and alcohol sentencing this week, favouring rehabilitation over prison time. The alternative sentencing arrangement will accept 35 people when it begins, giving these offenders the opportunity to spend time in rehabilitation...
Ongoing Drug Supply Charges Can Remain in the Local Court
Supplying a prohibited drug on an ongoing basis - or ‘ongoing drug supply’ - is an offence under section 25A of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or a...
No Conviction for Cannabis Oil Manufacture and Supply: An Interview With Cannabis Healer Jenny Hallam
Finally, after three years, Jenny Hallam’s ordeal with the authorities is over. And thankfully, rather than facing any prison time, last Thursday, SA District Court Judge Rauf Soulio recorded no conviction against her name and imposed a two year good...
