‘High Alert’ Campaign Warns Drug Users of Police Operations
Under Operation Safenight, Victoria police are carrying out nightclub raids and searches targeting people who use drugs throughout Melbourne. The operation commenced on April 23, and searches have been undertaken in the city’s nightclub precincts on two out of the...
How to Deal with a Vexatious Litigant
Going through court proceedings can be costly, stressful, frustrating and time-consuming - especially if you are the target of a baseless or false claim. Those who repeatedly institute such claims not only put others through unnecessary hardship, they add to...
Judge Breaks Down While Sentencing Defendant
A Victorian judge has broken down in court while sentencing a man who killed his violent brother. Victorian Supreme Court Justice, Michael Croucher, couldn’t hold back the tears as he sentenced 33-year old Shane Brown, who stabbed his 38-year ice-addicted...
Rehab and Harm Reduction: An Interview with WHOS director Garth Popple
The subject of drug rehabilitation formed part of the national discussion recently, after Australian Story aired the Breaking Good documentary. It told the story of Peter Lyndon-James, a former ice user, who now runs the “nation’s strictest” rehab clinic. Shalom...
Innocent Man Convicted After Botched DNA Test
Controversial DNA testing laboratory PathWest is under fire once again in the wake of fresh revelations that an innocent man was wrongly convicted and suffered the consequences of a criminal record for more than a decade after staff at the...
Victoria to Invest $70 Million into Mental Health Services
The Victorian government has unveiled a $70 million package aimed at reducing crime through improved mental health services. $40 million of the funds will go towards expanding the high-security Thomas Embling Hospital, a forensic facility where people with mental health...
The Implicit Racism in the War on Drugs
Drug prohibition has been a global phenomenon for nearly a hundred years now. The 1925 Geneva Convention imposed international restrictions on the production and use of opium, coca and, as a late addition, cannabis. However, the war on drugs was declared...
‘We’re Sorry’: Premier Apologises for Past Criminalisation of Homosexuals
Bu Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has apologised to the hundreds of people charged under the state’s historic gay sex offence laws, and has proposed laws for those who were convicted to clear their records. Ms...
Welfare Recipients to be Drug Tested
Things are about to get tougher for welfare recipients under a new demerit point programme unveiled as a part of the federal budget this week. The scheme requires Newstart recipients to spend more time looking for work, and their benefits...
Crime and Incarceration: An interview with BOCSAR director Dr Don Weatherburn
NSW crime rates are at their lowest in over forty years, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) figures revealed last month. Crime across most of NSW was found to have either declined or remained stable in most major...
