Wollongong police have defended the use of drug detection dogs, despite data showing up to 61 per cent of searches in the Illawarra returning no result.

Data provided by NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge showed there were 156 searches conducted in Wollongong after a drug dog indication in 2013, but drugs were found in only 60 of those searches - what Mr Shoebridge calls a "false positive" rate of 61 per cent.

There were 69 searches in the Lake Illawarra area in 2013 with drugs found in 41 cases, while 10 drug searches in the Shoalhaven turned up four positives.

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Drug Prohibition Isn't Working, and the New State Government Could Do Worse Than Look to Portugal for Some Fresh Ideas.

The dramatic rise in Victoria's drug trade over the past five years has occurred because the government has pursued failed prohibition policies. According to figures published in The Age on Monday, demand for "illegal narcotics such as ice is growing at breakneck speed. Use and possession offences for all drugs have skyrocketed 68 per cent in the five-year period, while cultivation, trafficking and manufacturing offences have jumped 25 per cent.

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Medical Drug Use Surfaces Ahead of Legal Push

FIVE doctors who prescribed their patients medical marijuana can continue to practise medicine, after health authorities ruled they were not putting the community in danger by recommending the controversial medication.

It comes as the Victorian Government has promised marijuana will soon be legal for use by people who are terminally ill or who suffer life threatening illnesses.

But the Herald Sun can reveal that state child protection workers continue to threaten Melbourne parents who have been treating their sick children with the drug.

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THERE'S a whiteboard on the kitchen wall in the Tune house with an important message.

"You are BRAVER than you believe," it starts.

"STRONGER than you seem. SMARTER than you think. And LOVED more than you'll ever know!"

A photograph is pinned to the bottom. In it, Katrina Tune lies in a hospital bed. They've wheeled her in to see her little boy, born by caesarean section only an hour before.

He isn't breathing on his own. It would be days before she'd give him a name, refusing to do so until they'd removed the breathing tubes so she could see his face. Those big eyes. The cherub lips. His name was Angus.In his 23 short months of life, Angus has had 12 hospital admissions, numerous trips to the emergency department, 17 EEGs and has been prescribed five different anticonvulsants - some with terrible side effects.

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Writing for the Criminal Law Committee of the NSW Bar Association, Stephen Odgers ("Drug control needs radical rethink", canberratimes.com.au, December 23) correctly concludes the best way to achieve a reduction in levels of illicit drug-related harm would be to replace the black market for drugs with a form of legal availability under a highly regulated system and to view drug use not as a law enforcement but as a health and social issue. What is being proposed by the lawyers is not radical but has considerable evidence to support it.

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CHILDREN with severe epilepsy and terminally ill adults may be treated with medical marijuana under a NSW clinical trial.

The NSW Government will fund the $9 million trial of at least three marijuana-derived medicines. The trial will examine the benefits to patients with a number of serious diseases.

The epilepsy trial will be run at the Westmead and Sydney Children's Hospitals and is expected to start enrolling patients in 2016.

NSW Premier Mike Baird said patients and parents of ill children were "increasingly desperate" for cannabis-based medication to be used to manage some illnesses.

[continues 93 words]

A 40-year-old middle school teacher was arrested Tuesday for allegedly allowing minors to smoke marijuana at her home in Cherokee County and two of them may have been her children.

Christine Cantrell, a Teasley Middle School in Canton, was charged with possession of marijuana less than an ounce, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and keeping a disorderly house, meaning she allowed illegal activity to occur there, according to Cherokee County officials. Cantrell's husband, Jeff, was also arrested on similar charges, Commander of the Cherokee County Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad Phil Price said. Both were released on $3,000 bonds Tuesday night, Price said.

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SYDNEY student Georgina Bartter has become the latest casualty in the unwinnable war against drugs.

As her family and friends come to terms with the loss of a beautiful and promising young woman, campaigners have renewed calls for a wideranging crackdown; to end the scourge and save lives. It's commendable but it's too late.

Any push to round up dodgy dealers or curb the spread of illicit drugs must start with a clamp on the most common legal drug of all.

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NO matter who wins the Victorian election, the state is heading into what was until recently a political no-go zone legal access to medical marijuana.

No longer left to fringe parties or the Greens, the issue now has support from the major parties.

It was the stories of Victorian families turning to cannabis oil and seeing improved quality of life for their seriously ill children that brought the issue into the political mainstream.

Liberal, Labor and even the Australian Sex Party are in rough alignment on the issue.

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POLITICIANS love to whip up a crisis. It's all part of the 24/7 news cycle that is eroding the capacity for rational dialogue in our democracy.

And the latest "crisis" is ice. According to Tasmanian Green MP Cassy O'Connor, ice - a methamphetamine also known as crystal meth - "threatens to destroy multiple generations in single families".

"Where's the acknowledgment that a crisis exists? Where's the commitment to responding effectively, with the necessary reprioritised resources to save a generation of Tasmanians from being laid to waste by ice?" Ms O'Connor fumed in an October 21 media release.

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Illicit drugs and alcohol are being smuggled into mental health wards run by the state's busiest public hospitals, undermining patient care and putting psychiatric staff at risk of violence.

Parents have reported that their children have bought and used illegal drugs while in hospital being treated for drug-induced psychosis, and health authorities say patients are returning to wards affected by drugs after going on temporary approved leave.

The families of mentally ill patients say the system is failing them and have raised concerns about a lack of drug rehabilitation services, forcing people with mental health and substance abuse problems into psychiatric wards.

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CLINICAL trials of medicinal cannabis should be expanded to include a range of illnesses, not just terminal ones, and should be fast-tracked to allow widespread use of the therapy, advocates say.

Medical professionals, state politicians and the families of those with chronic conditions have called for an expansion of clinical trials and immediate action on the issue, after the announcement that health ministers supported the trials.

Tony Abbott yesterday said he was "happy to support" trials to be established by NSW Premier Mark Baird. Victoria is also about to explore trials.

[continues 263 words]

The ACT will join a Commonwealth-backed national clinical trial of medical cannabis, set to be led by the New South Wales Government.

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher confirmed the territory's involvement in the trial during an official visit to China, welcoming a national approach to the issue after discussions with NSW Premier Mike Baird at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra on Friday.

The Canberra Times reported on Tuesday plans for a trial were well under way.

[continues 262 words]

Shane Rattenbury has split with ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher on the territory's approach to medical marijuana, criticising her calls for a national or state-based clinical trial.

A day after the New South Wales Government said an ACT representative would not be welcome on a working group preparing a planned cannabis trial, the Greens minister said overseas evidence was adequate for the ACT to allow cannabis for pain relief.

He said new trials would likely mean years of further delay for sick Canberrans and accused politicians including Ms Gallagher of seeking to slow the reform process through pursuit of new trials.

[continues 530 words]

Couple's Plea to Hospital for Their Sick Son

THE Melbourne couple who have controversially given their sick toddler cannabis oil now fear for his life after hospital doctors last night threatened to call the police if the drug was administered.

Cassie Batten and Rhett Wallace discharged their son Cooper from The Northern Hospital in Epping before the cannabis could be confiscated. They now feel they have nowhere to turn because doctors refuse to use the drug on hospital grounds. It is the first time the family has been prepared to reveal the name of the hospital that has been supporting the use of the cannabis oil and tincture for the treatment of their three-year-old's life-threatening seizures.

[continues 235 words]

OUT in the fields and talking with farmers it is glaringly obvious Tasmania is missing out on a huge opportunity from one of the oldest sustainable industries on the planet: industrial hemp.

Tasmania stands on the brink of a bold new industry with hemp. However, despite having many regulatory regimes to develop models for production of industrial hemp, we are going nowhere.

Industrial hemp is not a drug: it has virtually has no THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. It seems to get confused with medicinal cannabis.

[continues 318 words]

Teenagers who use marijuana daily run a higher risk of becoming drug dependent, committing suicide or trying other drugs and are less likely to succeed at their studies than those who avoid it, researchers have found.

In an analysis of studies on cannabis, the scientists said these long-term health and life effects were important since several countries are planning to relax legislation on it.

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug worldwide, despite a trend towards decriminalizing it in some countries.

[continues 252 words]

CANNABIS would be sold in supermarkets under a federal MP's radical plan for drug reform in Australia.

Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm wants to kill the power of organised criminals by decriminalising drugs, opening up the market and bringing down prices for a hit. Senator Leyonhjelm said that marijuana is a non-addictive drug and should be openly available.

Farmers should grow cannabis for sale in supermarkets, much like fruit and vegetables, and anyone should be allowed to cultivate a crop in their garden, he said.

[continues 55 words]

RESEARCHERS behind a new Australasian study into the effects of cannabis use in young adults have warned policymakers they "need to be very careful" if they are considering decriminalisation.

The study, which examined the effects of Australia's most widely used drug on 14 to 19year-olds up until the age of 30, found there was a "very strong" association between cannabis use over time and harmful outcomes.

According to the latest figures from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, in Australia 1 per cent of all 14 to 19-year-olds use cannabis daily, while 4 per cent use it weekly.

[continues 180 words]

Government Finally Comes Around to Clinical Cannabis Trial

MEDICINAL cannabis could rival the state's $100 million poppy industry if given the green light, the Opposition says, as the State Government finally throws its support behind a trial.

Tasmanian Health Minister Michael Ferguson said yesterday he supported a trial, reversing a stance in July which rejected the move on health, social and security grounds.

"We support appropriately conducted clinical trials, feeding into the existing national medicines regulatory framework," Mr Ferguson said.

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