Drug Decriminalisation Likely for the ACT: An Interview With Labor MLA Michael Pettersson
A parliamentary committee review of a proposal to decriminalise drugs in the capital territory tabled its final report last week, and it has recommended the ACT Legislative Assembly should pass laws that would remove criminal sanctions for the personal possession...
“Strip Searches Were Never Meant to Be Routine”: RLC’s Sam Lee on the Splendour Class Action
The protocols stipulating when police can carry out strip searches are set out in a piece of legislation commonly known as the LEPRA. Section 31 of this Act requires that when outside of a police station “the seriousness and urgency...
Litigating Against Police Misconduct: An Interview With ISUEPOLICE’s Luke Brett Moore
Being approached by police with a sniffer dog as you get off the train, and then being taken behind a screen and ordered to strip naked by armed officers sounds like something that would happen living under an authoritarian regime...
Legalising Hemp Leaf Foods: An Interview With Industry Pioneer Andrew Kavasilas
These days, if you walk down the aisles of any Australian supermarket, whether it be a major outlet or a smaller local store, you’ll come across hempseed food products. And they’ll usually be found in the health food section, as...
What is a ‘Conspiracy’ in the Commonwealth Criminal Law?
A Sydney man accused of serious drug offences is on the run from the police after allegedly disabling his ankle monitor while on bail. Northern Beaches restauranter Mostafa Baluch is alleged to have financed a major cocaine importation syndicate. He...
NSW Government Proposes to Divert Certain Drug Offenders Away From the Criminal Justice System
The New South Wales Government is proposing to implement a new program across the state, which would give some drug offenders a second chance. It’s a sharp departure from the hardline stance of successive state governments, which have refused to...
As the ACT Moves to Fixed-Site Pill Testing, NSW Police Minister Doesn’t Get It
NSW police minister David Elliott took the opportunity of Sydney opening up from its extended lockdown to strengthen the understanding that he has no idea about the evidence behind the harm reduction intervention known as pill testing. Elliott told Sky...
Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown – Articles from 27 September to 3 October 2021
In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the past week’s articles: Prosecutors Must Show Letters of Assistance to Defence Lawyers Prosecutors are required to show defence lawyers any letter proposed for tender in court which outlines...
The Offence of Possessing a Commercial Quantity of Unlawfully Imported Border Controlled Drug
Police arrested a 29-year old man on Thursday, 2 September 2021 at his home in Mt Colah in Sydney’s north, after raiding several properties including a storage facility in Hornsby. It has been alleged that the raids led to the...
Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown – Articles from 16 to 22 August 2021
In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the past week’s articles: Victoria’s Ongoing Heavy-Handed Cannabis Policing Is Harmful Former senior police sergeant Greg Denham explains that, ‘[d]rugs aren’t the problem: it’s our drug policies that are...
