Government Bans Alleged Drug Suppliers from Inner City Public Housing
The Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) issued a letter to inner city public housing applicants on February 28, explaining that they’ll be banned from certain housing estates if they were convicted of, or even charged with, drug supply or...
Stop Sniffer Dog Operations: An Interview With the Sniff Off Campaign’s Xiaoran Shi
The campaign against the warrantless use of sniffer dogs in public places by NSW police is moving North. The Sniff Off campaign, which is a collaboration between Greens MLC David Shoebridge and the NSW Young Greens, launched in Newcastle on...
Getting Drug Charges Dismissed Due to an Illegal Search
Under sections 21 and 36 of the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2001, police officers in NSW are prohibited from searching individuals, their personal items or their vehicles without a warrant unless they have a suspicion “on reasonable grounds”...
NSW Man Reports Theft of Cannabis to Police
Police in the Northern Rivers on the Far North Coast of NSW are considering whether to press charges against a man who reported his cannabis stash being stolen. Nimbin Police Station took the call from a local man who reported...
Time to Start Over: An Interview With Medicinal Cannabis Pioneer Lucy Haslam
Lucy Haslam has been at the forefront of the movement to re-introduce the use of medicinal cannabis in Australia since 2013. The Tamworth local was instrumental in engaging the support of politicians to a cause that many were sceptical about....
Cannabis Patients Denied Access: An Interview With MCUA President Deb Lynch
The Australian medicinal cannabis quagmire is heavily impacting patients. The whole debate around the medicine has been about how to get a criminalised plant, which is now widely recognised for its beneficial qualities, into the hands of those that need...
‘Game Changing’ Medicinal Cannabis Laws: An Interview with Labor MLC Adam Searle
An Australian politician has finally drafted a law which seeks to provide access to medicinal cannabis and is broad enough to get real product into the hands of patients who desperately need it. Leader of the NSW Opposition in the...
Professor Sacked after Reporting that Alcohol is the Most Harmful Drug
On October 29 2009, professor David Nutt was the chair of the UK government’s Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs. However, on the following day, he was promptly sacked after publishing a paper that assessed and compared the harms...
Women – the Invisible Drug War Casualties: An Interview With IAWUD’s Freedom Vivian
The war on drugs has been waged for close to fifty years now. In 1971, the Nixon administration heralded in this intensification of drug law enforcement, which has resulted in the mass incarceration of people who use drugs, and military interventions...
Making GPs Medical Cannabis-Wise: An Interview with Dr David Caldicott
In the mid-90s, Israeli medicinal chemistry professor Raphael Mechoulam discovered the endocannabinoid system. The professor’s earlier research had already led to the 1964 discovery of THC: the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a set of cell receptors, chemical...
