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...
High Time: NSW Government to Consider Passing Medicinal Cannabis Driving Defence
Unlike other prescription drug users, those who are prescribed medicinal cannabis in New South Wales can lose their driver licences and obtain a criminal conviction if they are found to be driving with any trace of the medicine in their...
Former Magistrate Heilpern Continues to Call for Medicinal Cannabis Driving Defence
Medicinal cannabis became a legally prescribed medicine on 30 October 2016, and despite immense teething issues in terms of the drug initially being legal but unobtainable, the Medical Board of Australia celebrated more than one million patients prescribed by January...
Duopoly Killjoys Cannabis Bill, as Historic First Vote Takes Place in Federal Parliament
NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge is the first federal parliamentarian to have brought on a parliamentary vote on the question of legalising cannabis before Australian parliament, and there is a hell of a lot of people in the community that...
Victorian Medicinal Cannabis Drivers to No Longer Face Automatic Loss of Licence, But NSW Continues Zero Tolerance
As of March next year, Victorians who use medicinal cannabis will no longer face automatic loss of licence after testing positive to the illegal practice of driving with any presence of the psychoactive component of cannabis, or THC, in their...
NSW Parliamentary Inquiry Recommends Immediate Steps Towards Decriminalising Cannabis
Despite NSW premier Chris Minns’ stated refusal to progress drug decriminalisation laws in this state, the NSW parliamentary committee inquiry into the impact of the regulatory framework for cannabis in NSW, has recommended steps towards the decriminalisation of the illegal...
Germany Sets Cannabis Driving Limits, While NSW Continues to Unfairly Criminalise Users
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier signed off on legislation a fortnight ago to set a limit for driving under the influence of cannabis, with the new legal limit that’s now taken effect being 3.5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood....
Former Magistrate Heilpern Tells It Straight on Parochial NSW Cannabis Prohibition
When former NSW Lismore Magistrate David Heilpern gave up the gavel a few years back, the NSW Northern Rivers community were saddened to see him go, as instead of applying major party ethics at the bench, he was a judicial...
NSW Refuses to Decriminalise Cannabis, Despite Top Lawyers Telling Inquiry It’s High Time
Established in March this by the Premier and Finance Committee, the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the state’s regulatory framework for cannabis has as a chief concern whether to decriminalise the widely recreationally used, yet still illegal, psychoactive plant. Yet, on...
