Category Archives: Illegal drugs

‘Will cost lives’: addiction experts condemn decision to scrap proposed safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD

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Government claims no appropriate location could be found for long-mooted second facility

A proposed safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD has been rejected by the Victorian government, with addiction experts warning the decision will “cost lives”.

The government on Tuesday announced that a trial facility, recommended by a former police commissioner and which would complement the existing service in North Richmond – will not proceed, after concluding there was no site that could balance the needs of drug users with the broader community.

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Queensland to become first state to introduce permanent pill-testing clinics

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Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival will conduct testing onsite at the end of March and first fixed-site clinic will open in Bowen Hills in April

Queensland will establish the first of two fixed pill-testing clinics in Brisbane this year, the first Australian state to back the harm reduction strategy on an ongoing basis.

The Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival near Warwick will be the first to conduct pill testing on site, at the end of the month. In 2019 two people died after taking drugs at the festival.

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MDMA overdose: nine people hospitalised after Melbourne music festival had severe hyperthermia

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Authorities believe extreme heat and physical activity, rather than a single bad batch, exacerbated drug’s impact at Hardmission

All nine people hospitalised after a mass drug overdose at an electronic music festival in Melbourne last weekend suffered severe hyperthermia, with three people remaining in a critical condition.

Another woman in her 30s was hospitalised on Friday after a suspected drug overdose at a separate music festival in the Melbourne suburb of Flemington. She remains in a critical condition.

Victorian health authorities believe the overdoses at last weekend’s Hardmission festival were not caused by a single bad batch of the drug MDMA as originally feared and that extreme heat and physical activity exacerbated the drug’s impact.

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NSW drug law overhaul would allow users to work off their fine by seeking help

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The scheme could see thousands of recreational ice, cocaine and MDMA users avoid criminal penalties

People who are caught with small quantities of illicit drugs for personal use could be issued with fines that they can work off by seeking help as part of a drug law overhaul being introduced into the New South Wales parliament this week.

The two-strike scheme could see thousands of recreational ice, cocaine and MDMA users avoid criminal penalties.

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Australian police find huge haul of Mexican meth worth $273m in hydraulic press

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Federal police try to identify crime syndicate behind elaborate smuggling scheme into NSW, after drugs found at port inspection in Sydney

More than 300kg of methamphetamine concealed deep inside a steel hydraulic press has been smuggled into New South Wales from Mexico.

Australian federal police say the seized haul has an estimated value of more than $273m and could have made up 3m individual street deals.

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Three strikes: NSW falls behind rest of nation as Queensland reforms drug possession laws

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Queensland health minister says progressive changes will open up pathways for people to receive treatment

New South Wales will become the only state that doesn’t allow cautions for people possessing drugs after Queensland moved to mandate a three-strike system.

Doctors, police and drug reform advocates are welcoming reforms, passed on Thursday night, that will see Queensland take a more progressive approach to policing the personal consumption of illegal drugs.

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Police foil plan to bring $1bn worth of cocaine into Western Australia

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Officers duped the alleged criminals into believing they had gotten away with the import, police say

A covert police operation has foiled a billion dollars worth of cocaine entering Western Australia, with officers duping the alleged criminals into believing they had gotten away with the import.

Operation Beech kicked off in November after Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized a record 2.4 tonnes of cocaine allegedly bound for Australia off the South American coast.

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Australian approval of MDMA and psilocybin a ‘baby step in the right direction’, medical experts say

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Psychiatrists cautiously welcome decision as Australia becomes the first country to officially recognise psychedelics as medicines

Psychiatrists have cautiously welcomed the ability to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin, saying it’s a “baby step in the right direction”.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration announced on Friday that, from July, approved psychiatrists would be able to prescribe MDMA (ecstasy) for post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms) for treatment-resistant depression.

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‘Likely a nightshade’: Australians urged not to seek out spinach products for recreational high

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Warning comes as more than 130 people who ate range of contaminated fresh food items suffer symptoms including hallucinations and delirium

Australians are being urged not to seek out contaminated baby spinach products for a recreational high after more than 130 people who ate a range of fresh food items suffered symptoms including hallucinations and delirium.

Authorities were on Sunday night testing the weed believed to be responsible for the widespread recall of products containing spinach thought to have come from a farm in Victoria.

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Riviera Fresh – Riviera Farms Baby​ Spinach

Fresh Salad Co – Fresh and Fast Stir Fry

Woolworths – Chicken Cobb Salad and Chickpea Falafel Salad

​Coles – Spinach, Chef Blend Tender Leaf, Baby Leaf Blend, Kitchen Green Goddess Salad, Kitchen Chicken BLT Salad Bowl, Kitchen Roast Pumpkin, Fetta & Walnut Salad, Kitchen Smokey Mexican Salad, Kitchen Egg and Spinach Pots

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ACT government to decriminalise possession of small amounts of drugs including cocaine and heroin

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Under new laws, anyone found with amount that falls within threshold will be fined, but not charged

The Australian Capital Territory government will decriminalise the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs including heroin, cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine, becoming the first jurisdiction in the country to do so.

In announcing the reforms on Thursday, the ACT health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, said it was clear current laws had not worked.

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Deaths from drug use rose in first year of pandemic to rate not seen since Australia’s late 1990s peak

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There were 1,842 drug-induced deaths in 2020, equivalent to five deaths a day, report finds

Five Australians died due to drug use per day in 2020, rates similar to a national peak in the late 1990s, according to the annual Drug Induced Death report.

Released by the Drug Trends program at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre on Thursday, the report found there were 1,842 drug-induced deaths in the first year of the pandemic.

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NSW police officers deny telling 15-year-old boy to ‘show his gooch’ during strip-search

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Two officers named as part of the search have refuted the teenager’s account at an inquiry in Sydney

A police officer involved in searching a boy at an underage music festival in Sydney says he has “no memory” of the teenager being asked to “show me your gooch”, and that it “didn’t happen”.

The 15-year-old claims he “froze” when he was asked to drop his pants during a strip-search at Sydney Olympic Park in February.

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Labor labels Coalition’s drug-testing plan ‘demeaning’ – politics live

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Scott Morrison accused of trying to force jobseekers to pee in a cup because he wants to pick fights with the opposition. All the day’s news, live

George Brandis has been spotted in the building.

We are not sure why our man in London is here, but no doubt it is all very terribly important.

Pauline Hanson is speaking to Sky News about a speech she is giving on family law reform, where she is calling for 50/50 joint custody of children, from the moment of separation.

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Scott Morrison says he is ‘puzzled’ by opposition to welfare drug testing

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PM defends drug testing proposal, which is struggling to attract support in parliament

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says he is “puzzled” by the widespread opposition to the idea of drug testing welfare recipients, as the government struggles to win over Senate support for the plan.

Saying he believed that drug testing those on Newstart and Youth Allowance could help people address substance abuse problems and get into the workforce, Morrison emphasised the proposal was a trial.

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Two Australians arrested in Bali reportedly linked to cocaine trafficking

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Charges yet to be laid against former Melbourne nightclub promoters William Cabantog and David Van Iersel

Two former Melbourne nightclub promoters are being held in Bali amid reported links to a cocaine-trafficking operation.

The men have been named in media outlets as William Cabantog, 35, and David Van Iersel, 38.

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Festival deaths inquest: police pushed to release protocols after ‘unconscionable’ strip searches

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Counsel assisting coroner says public deserves to know ‘under what circumstances are police entitled to strip search patrons’

The New South Wales coroner will push for the state’s police force to release its strip search protocols as part of an inquest into drug-related deaths at music festivals.

Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court on Thursday that the inquest had yet to receive “police protocols” on when strip searches could be carried out in the state, but that she intended to pursue the matter .

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Pacific nations are ‘victims’ of Australian and New Zealand appetite for drugs, experts say

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Australia urged to take action to stop cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking from Latin America through Pacific region

Australia and New Zealand have been urged to do more to fight the drug trade across the Pacific and take responsibility for the fact that the demand for drugs in cities such as Sydney and Auckland was having devastating effects on small Pacific nations.

Drug traffickers transport cocaine and methamphetamines through Pacific nations from the US and Latin America to Australia and New Zealand, where drug users pay the highest price per gram (about A$300 or £180) for cocaine and have the highest cocaine use per capita in the world.

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Festivalgoers hospitalised in NSW and Victoria after suspected drug-taking

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Eleven people left ill in Sydney and six near Ballarat after Australia Day long weekend music festivals

A teenage boy has been found with almost 600 capsules and $2,000 cash at a Sydney music festival where several people left critically ill due to drug use.

Six young men aged under 25 left the Hardcore Till I Die festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday in critical or serious conditions. All were either stable or discharged from hospital by Sunday.

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