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Drug reform

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Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and former senior public servant Michael De’Ath.

Key public servant speaks out on ‘alarming’ health program ban

School-leavers will descend on the Gold Coast later this week. The lack of drug-checking services for them – and the state – has driven one bureaucrat to act.

  • Matt Dennien

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Little Green Pharma’s Australian revenues up 29 per cent to $2.3 million for the quarter.

The WA government is asking whether cannabis should be legalised. Will it listen?

The Mental Health Commission asked the question as part of its 2025 Drug Attitudes survey, but a WA MP said the response from residents was rarely acted on.

  • Hannah Murphy
Director Lynette Wallworth with Tashka Yawanawa.

Treading a perilous line between science and shamanism

Edge of Life is a documentary probably best left to the true believers.

  • Jake Wilson
Police Minister Yasmin Catley and Health Minister Ryan Park at a press conference on Tuesday.

NSW was promised sweeping drug law changes. But these things won’t happen

Decisions have been made about strip-searches and sniffer dogs at music festivals, and how to handle drivers with a medicinal cannabis prescription.

  • Angus Thomson and Jessica McSweeney
Ecstasy tablets.

Health body calls for urgent talks as pill-testing ban looms

Advocates say the government is rushing through “irreversible legislative changes that could put Queensland lives at risk”.

  • Courtney Kruk
More than 740 attempted drug imports were disrupted by the AFP and Australian Border Force last year.

Drug overdoses spike in those over 40, shows new data

Overdoses among young people are falling but fatalities are soaring among the over-40s.

  • Madeleine Heffernan
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Then-premier Steven Miles and MP Grace Grace (both centre) inspecting a Bowen Hills pill-testing site ahead of its launch in 2024.

Government vows to end pill testing, despite private funding

The Crisafulli government has vowed to shut down a free pill testing service, which had been funded by the previous Labor administration, after it secured private funding to continue its services.

  • Cameron Atfield
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.

Eastern suburbs lotto: Drug diversion scheme differs wildly across postcodes

A low-level drug user’s postcode or drug of choice plays a massive factor in whether they’re issued a $400 fine or sent to court, Greens MP Cate Faehrmann has found.

  • Max Maddison
Barry Cooper, the former Texas policeman whose story is told in Never Get Busted.

Two people claim to have directed this movie. Can they both be right?

Never Get Busted is a riveting documentary about a drug cop who breaks bad (or good). But it is also the subject of a fierce legal battle – about who even made it.

  • Karl Quinn
Brisbane’s first and only permanent pill testing site closed in April after being defunded by the LNP government.

Hundreds visited these drug checking sites, but a review into them will stay secret

The pill testing initiative was launched with a promise there would be an independent evaluation after 12 months, but the government is rejecting calls to share those findings.

  • Courtney Kruk

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/drug-reform-1lze