Criminal Lawyer ‘Struck Off’ After Being Convicted of Drug Supply
Ugo Parente was employed by a criminal law firm in Liverpool shortly after being admitted as a New South Wales lawyer in 2006. He represented clients in a range of criminal cases and was a vocal anti-drug campaigner. He was...
‘Medicine Man’ Escapes Prison Time for Serious Drug Charges
Veteran medicinal cannabis producer Tony Bower escaped prison time when he was sentenced for commercial drug cultivation, along with other serious drug offences, at Port Macquarie District Court last Monday. Known locally as the Medicine Man, Mr Bower turned himself...
Towards a Regulated Drug Market: An Interview With Robert Richter QC
Human beings have been using psychoactive substances since prehistoric times. The use of opium, mushrooms, psychedelic cacti and alcohol has gone on for millennia. You might say that drug use has gone hand in hand with the progress of civilisation...
Shut It Down: Berejiklian’s Botched Festival Licensing Scheme
After months of warning the industry that a festival specific licensing regime will apply for all events statewide, the killjoy Berejiklian government announced a week before its implementation that the new regulations will now only apply to fourteen festivals. NSW...
Random Workplace Drug Testing: A Breach of Your Civil Liberties
Intoxication in the workplace is a significant safety issue. And for this reason, protocols are in place at certain worksites so that employees suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or other drugs can be tested. Increasingly though, random...
Frontline Festival Safety: An Interview With DanceWize NSW’s Jessie Murray
Over the last five months, safety at music festivals has been front and centre. There have been tragic deaths, increased hospitalisations, debates over pill testing, public rallies and an expert panel was convened to investigate the matter. However, all the...
A Healer, Not a Dealer: Jenny Hallam Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges
When the Turnbull government passed an amendment bill in February 2016 that legalised “the cultivation and production of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal and scientific purposes”, it was an admission that medicinal cannabis is a valid treatment that patients use....
Cannabis Legalisation is Coming to Canberra
A piece of legislation that would legalise the personal possession of cannabis for recreational use is to be debated in the ACT Legislative Assembly this week. And with the support of both Labor and the Greens, it’s set to be...
Another Casualty of the War on Festivals: An Interview With a Psyfari Organiser
At the moment, the NSW Liberal Nationals government is conducting an all-out assault on this state’s festival industry. And the reason why it’s doing it, is it can’t deal with the fact that in order to stop drug-related deaths, it...
Pill Testing Kits Available at Pharmacies
The President of the Australian Medical Associate, Kean Seng Lim, has urged caution following the announcement that a pharmaceutical chain is selling basic kits which test for the presence of popular illicit drugs such as MDMA (‘ecstacy’) and cocaine. A...
