THE vexed question of legalising medical marijuana is gaining momentum in Australia. Only recently NSW Premier Mike Baird said he wouldn't completely rule it out. Now, Brisbane mum Sally White tells 60 Minutes tonight that her 16-month-old daughter is dying and she wants to put her child on weed. A young cancer sufferer in Tamworth in NSW, his father a policeman, is waging a campaign to have medical marijuana made legal. It is legal in Colorado in the US and other states are investigating. Properly regulated and with rigorous eligibility criteria, surely if it gives the dying relief, legalising medical marijuana must be investigated in this country. [end]
TWO Queensland mums have made desperate pleas to legalise marijuana to save their children's lives, including one who is just 16 months old. Sunshine Coast mum Sally White fears for the life of her 16-month-old daughter Zali, who suffers from a rare genetic disease and cannabis could be the only option to ease her suffering. Zali was diagnosed with Aicardi syndrome, where a part of the brain is missing, resulting in frequent seizures. Ms White says a cannabis strain in the US, known as Charlotte's Web, is being used to treat children suffering from epilepsy and seizures. [continues 187 words]
THE Derwent Valley Council will seek a meeting with farmers to discuss the push to grow medicinal marijuana. Last week the council gave unanimous support in principle to growing the plant for agricultural, industrial and medicinal purposes. The disused Hayes Jail Farm will be investigated as a possible location. A council working party established to look into the issue met for the first time last night and decided to seek a meeting with the Farmers and Graziers Association. The Huon Valley and Dorset councils have also joined the fight to persuade the State Government to reconsider its opposition to a Tasmanian cannabis industry. [end]
THE Queensland Premier says he has an open mind about legalising marijuana for medical purposes but will rely on the advice of national health experts. Medical cannabis could soon be legalised in NSW with senior politicians indicating support, as long as concerns about how it would be regulated are dealt with. Campbell Newman says any change in Queensland should be made on the basis of advice from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), not NSW. "I have an open mind on these things," he told reporters yesterday. "There are so many of our life-saving and pain-alleviating drugs that come from nature, and I see it in that context. "But I'd be interested in what the NHMRC are saying." [end]
Libs Soften Stance on Medicinal Cannabis THE State Government has signalled it could step back from its ban on a medicinal cannabis trial under pressure to grow the hemp industry in Tasmania. Treasurer and Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein has told councils pushing for the trial that the Government will seriously consider the recommendations of an Upper House committee. "We're supporting that process and obviously we'll be guided by the response that comes out of that process," Mr Gutwein told the Local Government Association state conference in Hobart. [continues 295 words]
Tasmania, Big Supplier to Drug Companies, Faces Changes Now is the sowing season for opium poppies in the Australian state of Tasmania. Tractors chug up and down paddocks, pulling elaborate machinery that drills pairs of adjacent, miniature holes in the dirt, and then drops a dozen tiny kernels of fertilizer in one of the holes and a tiny poppy seed in the other. By November, the fields will be carpeted in pink flowers with an occasional splash of white or mauve. Then the flowers will drop away, leaving behind distinctive, cup-shaped pods packed with tiny poppy seeds along with the opium latex that surrounds them. When the latex dries two months later, the pods are harvested and hauled to factories, where machinery separates the seeds and grinds up the rest to extract the valuable narcotic alkaloids. [continues 2847 words]
THREE Tasmanian councils have joined the fight to establish a medicinal marijuana industry in the state. The Huon Valley Council yesterday said it had been approached by two Tasmanian companies within 24 hours that were fully funded to build a medicinal cannabis growing and production facility. General manager Simone Watson will meet Premier Will Hodgman to ask the Government to reconsider its opposition. The State Government launched a parliamentary inquiry into cannabis for medical purposes earlier this month. "Let's wait to see what comes out of that," Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin said yesterday. [continues 146 words]
Now in her late 20s, Jessica has smoked cannabis since she was 19, describing it as a "creative drug" and a mind-opening experience. She strongly favours legalisation of the drug but rarely consumes it these days. "I only smoke a little now because I discovered I have a heart condition and I tend to get heart pains when I smoke too much," she says. Jessica, who asks that her last name not be disclosed, is one of 16 long-term cannabis users whose portraits feature in an exhibition at a Sydney gallery next month. [continues 552 words]
DRUG problems have reached "epidemic" proportions on Palm Island say residents, who have called for permanent sniffer dogs. The community's drug use has reportedly increased since the Alcohol Management Plan was introduced in 2006 because the illegal substances are easier to smuggle in. Mayor Alf Lacey said he supported the call for drug dogs if that was what the community wanted. Member for Townsville John Hathaway said he was also happy to work with the Palm Island community, but that it was an "operational" matter. [continues 274 words]
Australia Comes Top of Global List for Recreational Drug Use AUSTRALIA has hit a new low by getting high, with revelations our nation can claim an unenviable gold medal for recreational drug users. The United Nations 2014 World Drug Report has found Australia ranks first in ecstasy use, second for opioids, third for methamphetamines, fourth for cocaine and seventh for cannabis - with experts warning our drug use is rising. AUSTRALIA, a country of sports champions, innovators ... and drug takers. The nation has the inglorious distinction of having the highest proportion of recreational drug users in the world - an embarrassing new low, albeit from getting high. [continues 815 words]
NEW figures show Sunshine Coast state schools have busted students with drugs up to 69 times in a year. Education Queensland released the data exclusively to the Daily, with numbers showing between 40 and 69 students were suspended from school in 2013 for misconduct involving an illicit substance. The department spokesman would not narrow down the figures. He said it was a matter of student privacy. Queensland state schools have a zero tolerance policy on drugs. The students busted on the Coast were suspended for up to 20 days. Some were expelled. [continues 479 words]
Tasmania Has a Unique Opportunity to Grow Medicinal Cannabis for Other States, Writes Dr Alex Wodak IN the 1960s, Daniel Grinspoon, the teenage son of a Harvard university psychiatry professor, developed acute leukaemia. Unfortunately, Daniel developed severe nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy. All of the latest treatments were tried but nothing helped stop or even reduce poor Daniel's persistent nausea and vomiting. Someone suggested to Professor Grinspoon that cannabis might work. And it did. Professor Grinspoon then started doing research on medicinal cannabis. [continues 705 words]
A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into legalisation of cannabis for medical purposes is expected to receive a huge response when it opens for submissions this week. A major Tasmanian poppy processor yesterday voiced support for a trial despite the State Government citing poppy industry opposition as one of the reasons for opposing any trials. TPI Enterprises managing director Jarrod Ritchie said yesterday he could not understand the Government's logic. The Cressy-based company makes poppy straw concentrate. Mr Ritchie said he could not understand why poppy growers' representatives would oppose a Tasmanian trial. [continues 168 words]
Minister's Talks on Trials THE State Government will today be lobbied to trial medical marijuana in Tasmania, while the state's peak medical body say they are doubtful they would support such tests. Australian Medical Association state president Dr Tim Greenaway said that ultimately its position would be decided at a federal level but it was his "own belief that it's doubtful they would support trials". "The AMA has major concerns about the use of medicinal marijuana as it is the third most addictive drug and is also associated with mental health issues," he said. "While there is anecdotal evidence it can be helpful for people with significant nausea associated with chemotherapy more evidence is needed." [end]
A GENETIC link between marijuana and schizophrenia may have been discovered in a groundbreaking study of more than 2000 Australians. The study - led by King's College London and involving the Queensland Brain Institute and the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute - examined the genetic risk profile of 2082 otherwise healthy Australians. Researchers found the genes known to be associated with schizophrenia were more often found in those 1011 people who had used cannabis - or used it in greater quantities. Writing in Molecular Psychiatry, the researchers suggest the same genes might be responsible for cannabis use and schizophrenia, countering the popularly held belief that smoking the drug increases the risk of the mental illness. [continues 411 words]
Sam Aulton has been forced to break the law to try and save her life. With cancer waging a terrifying war on her fragile frame, the young Maitland woman turned to cannabis oil in a bid to extend her life and ease her pain. But instead of the drug yielding the outcome she had hoped for, Ms Aulton's health deteriorated. She believes if the drug was legalised for medical purposes her outcome could have been different. "I'm not angry but if this drug was decriminalised then I would have been monitored by the professionals and not forced to go down this - -unprotected path," she said. [continues 535 words]
PROPONENTS of medicinal cannabis will today ask federal MPs to allow sick people legal access to the drug. Drug expert Alex Wodak and Lucy Halam - who is forced to illegally source marijuana for her terminally ill son, Dan - will meet MPs of all political persuasions in a push for the right for doctors to be able to prescribe marijuana. Hosted by a Greens, Liberal and Labor MP, the Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy and Law Reform hopes to take evidence to Health Minister Peter Dutton to argue for easier access for the sick. Greens senator Richard DiNatale said: "This is one of those areas where public opinion is well ahead of where politicians are." Fellow co-convener, Liberal MP Sharman Stone, said people continually raised the issue with her. [end]
The Deputy State Coroner has recommended that NSW prison cells should be subject to random searches at afternoon lockdown, after the overdose death of a female inmate highlighted the endemic nature of prison drug use. TracyLee Brannigan, 41, died from a heroin overdose at Dillwynia Correctional Centre while locked in her cell on the night of February 24 last year. In handing down his findings in relation to Ms Brannigan's death on Monday, Deputy Coroner Paul MacMahon said there was evidence that 75 per cent of women inmates in NSW had "drug addiction issues". He acknowledged that steps were being taken to address this problem, but found that most drug taking occurred after inmates were locked in for the night. [end]
Nowra woman Sarah* hates feeling like a criminal because she is giving cannabis to her dying husband. John*, who is in his 40s, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of oral cancer in February when he was given six to 12 months to live. Drastic surgery saw most of his tongue and the floor of his mouth removed, while a skin graft was taken from his arm to form a new tongue. He is now fed through a tube in his stomach and has had trouble speaking, swallowing and sleeping. [continues 323 words]
THE campaign to ease the suffering of terminally ill patients by legalising medicinal cannabis is gaining momentum, with high-profile Nationals minister Barnaby Joyce adding his voice to the groundswell of support for cancer sufferer Dan Haslam. Mr Joyce revealed he has had a change of heart from his usual tough stance on drugs after meeting 24-year-old Mr Haslam and his family, who are forced to break the law so that he can use cannabis to treat his severe pain and nausea from chemotherapy. [continues 405 words]
State Parliament National MP's Proposal Premier Mike Baird has left open the possibility he may support a private member's bill to decriminalise the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, promising that the government would give it "careful consideration". The Nationals MP for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, will draft a bill that would allow the terminally ill to use cannabis. The move follows publicity around the case of one of Mr Anderson's constituents, 24-year-old Dan Haslam, who has been using cannabis to relieve nausea associated with chemotherapy to treat his terminal cancer. [continues 377 words]
A NSW government MP has broken ranks with his colleagues and will introduce legislation to legalise cannabis for terminally ill patients. Nationals lower house MP Kevin Anderson met Premier Mike Baird on Wednesday and told him he was going to introduce his bill despite the government's opposition to legalising medicinal cannabis. He shared with Mr Baird the story of 24-year-old Dan Haslam, who has terminal bowel cancer and has been forced to use cannabis illegally to treat his pain and nausea. "The Premier was sympathetic and listened intently while I explained the issue to him and the circumstances surrounding my decision to try and change the laws," Mr Anderson said in a statement. [continues 117 words]
NIMBIN'S 22nd annual Mardi Grass - a festival supporting the legalisation of cannabis that includes a bong-throwing competition, joint rolling events and a hemp rope tug of war - has been blitzed by police. A total of 86 people were nabbed for driving under the influence of a prohibited drug and five people were caught drink driving The annual festival, which attracted up to 10,000 people over the weekend and offers visitors tips about what to do if you get pulled over by police, was closely watched by Richmond local area command police. [continues 100 words]
CHERI O'Connell says she would rather move her family overseas than accept medical marijuana from an underground supplier. On Sunday she said that several underground marijuana growers had offered to provide her with the medical cannabis needed to treat her daughter Tara's epilepsy. Ms O'Connell said she did not want to get involved with people who grew marijuana illegally and sold it to people for recreational purposes. She said that buying marijuana from underground dealers could have legal ramifications for herself and her family, which was a risk she was not willing to take. [continues 273 words]
Experimenting with cannabis on a casual basis damages the brain permanently, research has found. It is far from being a "safe" drug and no one under the age of 30 should ever use it, experts said. People who had only used it once or twice a week for a matter of months were found to have changes in the brain that govern emotion, motivation and addiction. Researchers from Harvard Medical School carried out detailed 3D scans on the brains of students who used cannabis casually and were not addicted and compared them with those who had never used it. [continues 285 words]
Workplace drug testing tipped to rise I have used drugs and that is why I am coming forward to tell my story. I am a lawyer and my drug use has no connection with my job. It is a choice I have made. I have had some positive experience with drugs, and of course some bad ones. I have had marijuana and laughed a great deal, but also experienced paranoia and anxiety. I have also had both good and bad experiences with hallucinogens and other drugs. [continues 843 words]
Bill Clinton famously said he did not inhale but asking a candidate for the Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party if they have smoked pot is a little pointless. But James Moylan, who has emerged as an outside chance of snaring a WA Senate seat for the HEMP Party, says he enjoys a joint once or twice a week. Sitting in a cafe in the NSW hippie haven Nimbin, Mr Moylan, 51, rates his odds of pulling off a shock upset at one in six. [continues 241 words]
EVERY day, desperate Australians are breaking the law by acquiring or growing their own marijuana to treat problems ranging from chronic pain to uncontrolled seizures and chemotherapy-induced nausea. Medical marijuana, made with cannabidiol, a component of cannabis, has been produced by drug companies in oils, sprays and tablets, which remove the uncertainty about dosing. But these therapies are out of reach to Australians because they are yet to be legalised. The story of eight-year-old epilepsy sufferer Charlotte Elliott, told in the Sunday Mail yesterday, has heightened public debate and support for medical marijuana. [continues 208 words]
After more than nine years in prison, Schapelle Corby has walked free. Wearing a hat and covering her face, Corby said nothing to reporters as she was hustled off to an exclusive resort. Schapelle Corby told an Indonesian official "I am happy" as she was led through the three-step process of release on parole on Monday amid a storming media pack in Bali. Corby, who has spent the past nine years four months and two days in Kerobokan prison, walked out of jail about 8.15am local time. It was a day of conflicting emotions for the convicted drug smuggler, with officials saying she looked nervous and had cried at the intensity of the media attention. [continues 618 words]
Schapelle Corby: Parole Granted, Set to Walk Free Which version of Schapelle Corby do you buy? Hapless beauty school dropout. Persecuted Aussie tourist. Victim of a criminal conspiracy. Latter-day Joan of Arc. Lying drug mule. Ganja Queen. Tragic dupe of her potdealing father. Magazine cover girl with selling blue eyes. Small-time bogan dope trafficker sentenced to 20 years' jail in Bali more than some terrorists for stuffing a pathetic 4.2 kilograms of cannabis into her boogie board bag. Barbecue stopper. [continues 1872 words]
SCHAPELLE Corby's family have denied the lawyer who appeared on TV claiming the convicted drug smuggler would celebrate her freedom with a "big marijuana joint" had ever worked for them. Kerry Smith-Douglas appeared on Channel Nine's Today in a bizarre interview where she was introduced as Corby's former lawyer to talk about the impending parole. "Yes, it's very exciting, there's going to be a lot of parties going on once she is released, and I can't wait," she joked. [continues 652 words]
SCHAPELLE Corby has paid an extraordinarily high price after being convicted of smuggling 4.2kg of cannabis into Indonesia. Corby has been incarcerated in the living hell of Kerobokan Prison in Bali for 10 years. She has been in and out of hospital for treatment for depression, amid grave concerns for her psychological health. From the start of her dreadful ordeal, the Queensland beautician has denied she knew anything about the large quantity of marijuana Indonesian customs officers say they found in vacuum-sealed plastic in her unlocked boogie-board bag. [continues 469 words]
A "SIGNIFICANT" drug dog operation was carried out in Newcastle CBD on Saturday night to crack down on and discourage street-level drug dealing. Twelve venues were searched from 11pm to 2.30am with a drug detection dog brought in from Sydney. Newcastle City Chief Inspector Dean Olsen said three people were found with small quantities of pills believed to be ecstasy. "There were three drug seizures which were small quantities of pills," he said. "This is part of an initiative addressing potential problems in the city it's not just alcohol we're targeting. [continues 184 words]
Mixed Messages on Booze Just Stir the Pot HYPOCRITICAL parents are teaching their children the dangers of drugs while drinking to unhealthy excess and smoking deadly tobacco, according to a federal MP. Greens health spokesman Richard Di Natale has joined several politicians to argue alcohol is just as dangerous as marijuana, despite it being widely accepted and legal. "It's no wonder that some kids are confused when they see people smoking a drug, and drinking a drug, sometimes to excess and sometimes causing harm, and those same people are telling people not to use drugs," the doctor and former drug and alcohol clinician said. [continues 301 words]
WHAT an indictment on our system of law: 160 people arrested on one day, mostly for cannabis, at Sydney and Melbourne music festivals. Concertgoers were dancing, having a good time. No reports of major violence. Contrast this with the alcohol-fuelled murderous thuggery and violence on the streets of our cities. Has the alcohol lobby really got that much political clout? Sue Ellerman, Richardson, ACT [end]
AN EPILEPTIC girl who was having up to 60 seizures a day and who was given only months to live has made a miraculous recovery since her mum started giving her liquid cannabis which was made in Nimbin. Doctors at one of Australia's leading hospitals have acknowledged the "remarkable improvements" in the girl's condition one year after she started taking the drug. But health representatives have warned families not to use medicinal marijuana, saying it remains illegal across Australia. [continues 398 words]
HOW great to see the major parties falling into line yet again on a social issue - both don't want to legalise marijuana because the world will end as we know it. How many other social issues do most Australians support and yet our Parliaments do not? Gay marriage? Euthanasia? Legalising cannabis? (81 per cent in one 2010 poll). Let's look at firstly legalising cannabis for medicinal purposes and then general use. Peter Allan, Blackburn [end]
The hunt for the Mr Big behind the drug trade is over at last. We have found him. It is you. The urban, educated middle classes of the rich nations, who take drugs or don't object to others taking them, fuel the enormous demand for marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Without their dollars, euros and pounds, there would be no billions to fight over, no gangs, no narcostates or narco-terror. Yet for some reason, whenever we discuss the alleged "war on drugs", we never mention demand. There are evil dealers, whom we all deplore. There are still more evil traffickers and gangs, whom we deplore still more. [continues 634 words]
Police Arrest Female Officer With Link to Drug Trafficking Accused A FEMALE police officer closely linked to the alleged ringleader in the state's largest cannabis trafficking operation has been charged following a lengthy AntiCorruption Branch investigation. The officer, Senior Constable Amanda Boughen, a patrol officer based at Holden Hill, is facing one count of obstructing or attempting to pervert the course of justice. While the exact nature of her alleged offending cannot be revealed, investigations by The Advertiser show that Sen-Constable Boughen, 40, of Mawson Lakes, is the former partner of Storm Alexander Strang - the alleged ringleader of the $40 million cannabis trafficking syndicate smashed by police in January. [continues 453 words]
First Interview After Parole Release Could Fetch $3 Million CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby could command almost $3 million for her first TV tell-all interview, putting her parole confession on par with the payday that welcomed the Beaconsfield miners back to the land of the living. Sean Anderson, the superstar agent who negotiated Australia's richest deal ever for a prime-time TV news story on behalf of miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell, said Corby could match the money they made if she was able to speak freely about her Balinese jail ordeal. [continues 395 words]
I TOTALLY disagree with that reformed addict who blames his addiction on cannabis use. He admitted to being addicted to alcohol, cannabis and meth. I'd say he had a predisposition to abuse any drug he consumed. Millions of people use drugs every day responsibly. When teenagers take that first step into getting "high", the legal pathway compels them to drink alcohol. Now that's a bad choice. Why? Just read the tabloids everyday - drunken violence - trails of victims and shattered lives. [continues 141 words]
The Pendulum Has Swung Too Far, Savaging Trust I'M old enough to remember New York in the 1980s. It was violent, exhilarating and sometimes desolate. As the crack epidemic laid waste to AfricanAmerican neighbourhoods, in particular, the city felt like it must have in the gang-ridden New York of the 19th century. The number of murders in the city kept rising until, in 1990, a modern record of 2254 victims was marked. The city was ungovernable, we were told. And then Rudy Giuliani governed it. [continues 841 words]
SCHAPELLE Corby's hopes of being granted parole after almost a decade in a Balinese prison have taken a leap forward. Indonesian officials yesterday visited her cell and inspected the home of sister Mercedes where she will have to live if released. If Corby becomes the first foreign prisoner in Indonesia granted parole she must live with Mercedes and Balinese husband Wayan Widyartha in the traditional compound home they share with their three children and his extended family in Kuta. Sources said three female parole board officials yesterday morning first talked to the 36-year-old in her cell at Kerobokan Prison. [continues 280 words]
THE idea that Prof Robin Room's pro-marijuana legalisation opinion risks sending a dangerous message to young Australians ("Drug debate out of puff", HS, July 10) is misguided. His basic point is not as absurd as it has been made out to be: like alcohol, marijuana is hardly good for humans to consume but, on the balance of evidence, pot is almost certainly less socially deleterious than booze. Nobody denies that marijuana is associated with various mental health problems; but by the same token, all one has to do is go out on a Saturday night to see the equally real problems associated with alcohol consumption. Given we live in a society that tolerates (indeed, celebrates) the consumption of alcohol, it is the current criminalisation of the relatively socially benign drug cannabis that is surely the more confused message. James Clapham, Toorak [end]
THE head of Australia's leading alcohol research body has said that marijuana should be legalised in an effort to curb binge drinking. Director of the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Robin Room, said marijuana should be legalised (under strict controls) because the social harm associated with it was significantly less than from drinking. "It makes sense to legalise marijuana in a controlled market," he said. "We are in a situation where we need to look ahead. I think we need to have the discussion and it makes a lot of sense in terms of, among others, cutting down government costs to have a fairly highly controlled legal (cannabis) market and, while we are at it, tighten up the legal market of alcohol in the same way we tightened up the market of tobacco." [continues 223 words]
Thank you Gary Christian (Letters, July 11). In the British Medical Journal (March 3, 2013) Professor John Henry wrote " cannabis is as dangerous as cigarette smoking - it may be even worse", adding users are up to six times more likely to develop schizophrenia. Dr William Oldfield wrote puffs by cannabis smokers " are two-thirds larger, they inhale a third more, and hold down the smoke four times longer . . . chemicals in cannabis smoke are retained in the body to a much higher degree, and cannabis today is 40 times stronger than that used in the 1960s". Colliss Parrett Barton, ACT [end]
Alcohol policy research director Robin Room (July 10) says his drive to legalise cannabis is driven by his deep concerns about the damage done by the legal drug alcohol. There is one death for every 320 alcoholics and other problem users of alcohol each year. Heroin kills one in every 100 users from overdose, plus other ways it kills. Alcohol does so much damage in Australia because 80 per cent of Australians use it. Less than 3 per cent use heroin, speed, ice, cocaine and ecstasy, and 10 per cent use cannabis. These drugs are used less precisely because they are illegal. [continues 107 words]
However strong your beliefs, it doesn't make economic sense to incarcerate people for drug use. Locking people up for such a "misdemeanour" is counterproductive, as it costs the taxpayer more and reduces the number of taxpayers. Taxing cannabis will provide money for school education campaigns on negative aspects of its use, extra money for hospitals, roads and, importantly, free up police resources. In The Netherlands, which has legalised its use, fewer people use cannabis than in Australia. Only "medicinal use" of cannabis is taxed in California and it provides huge government income. [continues 89 words]
Legalise Marijuana to Cut Alcohol Dangers, Urges Professor THE head of Australia's leading alcohol research body has called for marijuana to be legalised to reduce the harm of drinking. Robin Room, director of the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, says marijuana should be legalised under strict controls because the social harm associated with it was significantly less than from drinking. "It makes sense to legalise marijuana in a controlled market," he told the Herald Sun yesterday. "We are in a situation where we need to look ahead. I think we need to have the discussion and it makes a lot of sense in terms of, among others, cutting down government costs to have a fairly highly controlled legal (cannabis) market and, while we are at it, tighten up the legal market of alcohol in the same way we tightened up the market of tobacco." [continues 261 words]
A WOMAN who turned to smoking marijuana after a series of tragedies has been warned by magistrate Graeme Tatnell to stop using the drug. Lorraine Skarpona, 50, was charged with possessing dangerous drugs after police raided her Urangan home on April 23. The police searched her room before finding a black bag that had "a strong smell of cannabis," police prosecutor Michael Quirk said. Skarpona opened a zipped section of the bag, 31.7g of the drug was found. Skarpona told police she didn't know how it got there. [continues 197 words]
Australia
