If Bans Do More Harm Than Good, It's Time to Try a Different Approach Who suffers most from drug prohibition? The conventional wisdom is that Western countries pay a very high price for illicit drugs originating from and transiting through some developing countries. But the truth is the highest price for our failed "war on drugs" is paid by those relatively few countries where the drugs are produced or through which they move. This perspective was usefully analysed in a recent report from the United Nations Development Program, headed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark. Entitled Perspectives on the Development Dimensions of Drug Control Policy, it shows the worst damage from global drug prohibition is not in places such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Mexico. [continues 838 words]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
MONTEVIDEO (AFP) - Uruguay's Senate has approved a ground-breaking law that legalises marijuana, becoming the first nation to oversee the production and sale of the drug. After a marathon debate, 16 leftist senators out of 29 legislators voted yesterday in favour of the legislation championed by President Jose Mujica, who must now sign it into law. Outside the Senate, hundreds of cannabis-smoking supporters launched fireworks in what they dubbed "the last march with illegal marijuana". "The war against drugs has failed," said senator Roberto Conde as he presented the bill on behalf of the ruling leftist Broad Front, calling it an "unavoidable response" to that failure. [continues 293 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]
The Benefits Are Clear; a Ban on Marijuana for Medicinal Purposes Cannot Be Supported MEDICINAL use of cannabis should be permitted in Australia. In 2013, we should not still be merely discussing this possibility. On Wednesday, a NSW parliamentary committee, chaired by Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell, unanimously recommended that medicinal cannabis be permitted for some people with certain terminal conditions. At present, 18 states in the US allow medical marijuana and a further 10 are considering it. Apart from providing genuine alternatives to existing medicines, this approach has kick-started scientific research on cannabis by an industry that has until recently been cowed from embarking on research projects. [continues 948 words]
A RECENTLY arrested leader and founder of Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas says the group gets their drugs in Guatemala and their weapons are smuggled from the US across the Rio Grande. Rejon Jesus Enrique Aguilar, also known as "El Mamito", was arrested on July 3 in a district near the Mexican capital. "We buy (narcotics) in Guatemala," Aguilar said in a video. "It is not reliable (buying from) the Colombians," he added. The authorities declared Guatemala's Peten department, on the border with Mexico, under siege in May after the slaughter and beheading of 27 people. The crime was attributed to Zetas. [continues 182 words]
Cannabis Ice Cream, Cake and Beer Have Been Cleared on Health Grounds by the Nation's Food Watchdog, Despite Fears the "Marijuana Munchies" Could Trigger Positive Drug Tests. Food Standards Australia New Zealand yesterday sought public comment on an application by deregistered Sydney doctor Andrew Katelaris to lift Australia's ban on food derived from cannabis. Dr Katelaris, who is appealing against his deregistration for supplying medical marijuana to patients, yesterday said the seeds of industrial hemp contained more Omega 3 acids than seafood. "We're looking at making ice cream and health food bars," he said. [continues 269 words]
THE US Drug Enforcement Administration has grown into a global intelligence and diplomatic body. And its reach extends far beyond narcotics, leaked cables reveal The DEA's operations have become so expansive that the agency has had to fend off struggling foreign leaders who want to use it against their enemies. One cable from August last year reported that Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli sent an urgent message to the US ambassador asking the DEA to go after his political rivals. "I need help with tapping phones," the President said, according to The New York Times yesterday. [continues 487 words]
TWENTY-NINE years after the announcement of a new pandemic, the world still struggles to come to terms with HIV. Sometimes logic, rationality and compassion have prevailed in our responses, but all too often emotion has triumphed over evidence. Earlier this month in Sydney the National Centre for HIV Social Research held its biennial conference to review responses to this infection. Former High Court judge Michael Kirby spoke about a recent meeting he attended in The Netherlands where leaders of the world's religions discussed this challenging epidemic. [continues 795 words]
In December the US Senate passed a bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama just before Christmas, allowing the federal government for the first time since 1988 to allocate funding to needle syringe programs. The bill also removed an earlier restriction preventing needle syringe programs from operating within 300m of a school, playground or other sensitive facility. The US is slowly shedding the extremes of its long-standing war on drugs, as are other countries in Europe and South America. [continues 783 words]
THE Australian PGA could be the last major tournament on the local tour to be conducted without drug-testing. Officials confirmed yesterday they were eyeing off the introduction of a drug-testing regime in the middle of next year, bringing the Australasian tour into line with the US and Europe. The imminent introduction of drug-testing in all major Australian tournaments comes amid reports in US newspapers that Tiger Woods mixed sleeping drug ambien with alcohol to enhance his sex life. A few months ago, the Queensland State of Origin side was investigated over rumours its players had mixed Stilnox -- the Australian equivalent of Ambien -- with alcohol to simulate the effects of cocaine. [continues 174 words]
LIKE it or not, more than two million Australians will smoke cannabis in the next 12 months. Research from Australia and across the world shows no clear relationship between the number of people using cannabis and the severity of penalties for cannabis offenders. So, what practical steps can be taken to try to reduce harm from cannabis? In June the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre released first-aid guidelines for problem cannabis use. These were designed to help the community identify and assist users who are developing a problem with their cannabis use or are in a cannabis-related crisis. [continues 730 words]
West Australian police will have the nation's toughest powers to stop and search people under a plan, unveiled yesterday, which removes the need for them to show any grounds for suspecting an offence. Premier Colin Barnett said it was intolerable that people caught with weapons or drugs were being let off in court because police could not establish that there were sufficient grounds to search them. He said legislation would be introduced within weeks to allow anyone to be stopped and searched without reason in a bid to reclaim the streets from thugs. [continues 424 words]
First Aid Isn't Just For Bodies, There Are Guidelines For Brains Injured By Cannabis ROUGHLY one-third of Australians have tried it. Half of all people aged 20 to 29 have used it and some of those, like Jade, have smoked so much cannabis that their mental health has crumbled, triggering depression, psychosis, panic attacks, paranoia and even suicidal thoughts. "It was very scary. I thought people could read my mind. I was getting messages from watching TV. I was very paranoid. I felt like there was a big conspiracy and that everyone was in on this agenda and it was all about me. Cameras were on me. It was something I'll remember forever and I wouldn't wish it on anyone," recalls Jade, now 29, off "bongs" and studying for a career in youth work. [continues 1010 words]
Two healthy children who had never been abused or neglected by their parents were forced into foster care last September after it was found the couple had smoked cannabis. The two children -- a girl, aged two, and her baby brother -- were removed from their home by police officers after two case workers from the NSW Department of Community Services had reported their concerns over the parents' drug use. But three months later, NSW Supreme Court judge George Palmer ordered that the children be returned to their parents, whom a psychologist had found to be "loving, sensitive and ... well able to provide for the safety, welfare and wellbeing of their infant children". [continues 608 words]
Intercepted telephone calls between Young Australian of the Year contender Iktimal Hage-Ali and her cocaine dealer were played in the New South Wales District Court today. Ms Hage-Ali, 24, is suing the state of NSW, claiming she was wrongly arrested and detained by police in November 2006. Under cross examination today by Peter Bodor QC, for the state of NSW, Ms Hage-Ali said in late 2006 she bought cocaine from childhood friend Bruce Fahdi, but denied she had ever been an addict. [continues 232 words]
MOST Australians would support clinical trials of cannabis for medical use, a survey has found. More than 23,000 people over the age of 12 were quizzed about their personal use and attitudes to drugs for the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Almost 50 per cent of respondents said they would support regulated heroin injecting rooms. The nationwide survey found 70 per cent supported legalising cannabis for medical reasons, while approval of clinical trials for cannabis approached 75 per cent. Most people also looked favourably on needle and syringe programs, which were supported by more than 65 per cent. [continues 161 words]
IN 1998, the United Nations held a general assembly special session on drugs and set 2008 as the target date to eliminate, or significantly reduce, the world's drug production and use. Well, here we are in 2008, and while we've certainly come a long way, drugs still remain a worldwide problem. The elimination of drugs is an ideal many would like to see achieved, but we need to approach drug issues in a realistic and pragmatic manner. Fortunately, the next UN initiative sees the potential to formulate realistic goals and some positive changes for the future, including to the drug control conventions which govern global drug control, and to which many countries (including Australia) are signatories. [continues 803 words]
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty's trip to Afghanistan throws the spotlight on the Taliban's drug trade. Keelty is sending 12 AFP agents to join up to 1000 international officers training the Afghan police in counter-narcotics. But the Pentagon's first post-invasion assessment of conditions in Afghanistan reveals that the Taliban killed 6500 people in 2007 (a post-invasion record), its funding base, opium production, "increased substantially" and that overall counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan have not been successful. [continues 728 words]
THE Liberal and Labor parties have been told it would be absurd for them to direct preferences to the Greens in the federal election because it would be sending children the message it was acceptable to use drugs. In an attempt to gain crucial support for his party at the next election, expected in October or November, Family First's only federal representative, Steve Fielding, has warned the major parties against any association with the Greens. In response to Greens leader Bob Brown's call for Labor preferences, Senator Fielding said the Greens were pushing dangerous views on drugs and had no sensible policies on families or small business. [continues 342 words]
PROHIBITION doesn't work. Didn't work for grog. Doesn't work for drugs. Failed with porn. Hopeless with ideas. Not only does prohibition not work, it's entirely counterproductive. Applied to alcohol in the United States from 1920 to 1933, prohibition added to alcoholism and nurtured gangsters such as Al Capone, while writing a blank cheque for corruption at every level of the political and justice systems. Applied to drugs, prohibition teamed with useless exercises in interdiction gave narcosis increased countercultural cred, recruited millions of users and addicts, created countless drug lords with their mules, pushers and enforcers and encouraged limitless corruption -- up to and including the corruption of national governments. [continues 700 words]
THE NSW Coalition yesterday tried to capitalise on the Greens' support for decriminalising hard drugs by calling on Labor to reveal and cancel its preference deals with the party. All major parties leapt on the Greens, with Nationals leader Andrew -Stoner describing Greens leader Lee Rhiannon as a "watermelon" - green on the outside but red inside. Ms Rhiannon defended the policy, saying that while dealers should be punished, individual drug users should be given treatment. "The policies of the state Government have failed because it's under the Iemma Government that we've had this huge increase in the use of drugs like ice," she said. [continues 249 words]
NSW PREMIER Morris Iemma today condemned as "absurd and disgusting" a plan by the Greens to decriminalise the use of drugs, including ice. Greens leader Lee Rhiannon said the election policy aimed to treat users and punish dealers. "For individual drug users, we need to be giving them treatment," said Ms Rhiannon, an Upper House MP. "The policies of the state Government have failed because it's under the Iemma Government that we've had this huge increase in the use of drugs like ice." [continues 185 words]
FORMER royal commissioner and inaugural National Crime Authority chairman Don Stewart says attempts to deal with the growing illicit drug problem through traditional law enforcement methods have failed. The retired judge, who headed a royal commission into drug trafficking in Australia in the 1980s, says illegal drug use should be treated as a public health issue. "I have slowly come around to the point where I believe the handling of it in a criminal way is never going to work," Mr Stewart told The Weekend Australian. "Punitive measures will not work. We can't go on the way we are." [continues 337 words]
HEROIN substitutes and clean syringes should be provided to prisoners to combat disease and corruption in jails, a coronial inquest into the overdose of a murderer has recommended. Prisons Minister Judy Spence yesterday rejected the recommendation of Queensland Coroner Michael Barnes, who delivered his findings into the death in his cell from a heroin overdose of Darren Michael Fitzgerald on June 13, 2004. Ms Spence said the Government would not be handing out syringes in jails, and said there were no plans to extend the methadone program beyond the two in women's prisons in Brisbane and Townsville. [continues 220 words]
Welcome to the silly season, a time when newspapers overflow with full-page ads for marijuana and top-shelf spliffs are cheap, cheap, cheap - particularly if you buy in bulk. At Christmas parties across the nation, hemped-up workers binge wildly on festive bucket bongs and company-subsidised skoofus. Families toast each other with rounds of celebratory reefers and even teetotallers succumb to the peer pressure and smoke themselves silly to mark the virgin insemination of Santa Claus in the manger. [continues 626 words]
DRUG dealers will face minimum jail sentences and drivers caught on drugs will be forced to submit to random testing for 12 months after a conviction if the Liberals are elected on Saturday. Firing up the law-and-order debate for the last week of the election campaign, Liberal leader Ted Baillieu said he would remove the discretion of judges to pass non-custodial sentences on drug traffickers. Mr Baillieu said the Liberals wanted to send a strong message that illicit drug supply and use, including so-called recreational drugs, were not acceptable. [continues 385 words]
IT seems illogical, but the same compound that addles the brains of marijuana users may help treat the symptoms and slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia among elderly people. In laboratory experiments, the compound, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), preserved levels of a brain chemical that declines in Alzheimer's, permitting the build-up of brain-gumming "amyloid plaques". The plaques are the hallmark of Alzheimer's and its dementia-inducing damage. "Our results provide a mechanism whereby the THC molecule can directly impact Alzheimer's disease pathology," researchers reported in the US journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. [continues 166 words]
THE rising use of amphetamine type substances is a growing concern for Australia and the region, federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison said today. "Amphetamine Type Substances (ATS) are the greatest challenge in the war on drugs, both here in Australia and internationally," Senator Ellison said today in the wake of a report on illicit drugs by the Australian National Council on Drugs. The senator said the so-called "Golden Triangle" - where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet - remained a great threat in terms of drug production. [continues 107 words]
Rising Affluence In The Asia-Pacific Region Has Led To A Growing Population Of Young Middle-Class Drug Users Fed By Booming Illicit Domestic Markets, Writes Cameron Stewart WHEN the North Korean ship the Pong Su mysteriously appeared off the Victorian coast in 2003 to dump its deadly haul of heroin here, authorities hoped it was a one-off crime, a brazen act by a desperate nation. That now seems unlikely. A significant new report, obtained exclusively by The Australian, shows Australia is almost certain to be targeted by other heroin ships. [continues 1876 words]
THE normally conservative Country Women's Association will lobby governments to begin trials in the medicinal use of marijuana. In a decision that may send ripples of concern through conservative parties, the CWA national executive voted in Darwin 11 days ago to lobby for cannabis to be tested as a treatment for chronic pain. Incoming CWA president Leslie Young, a member of the Tasmanian branch from where the motion is understood to have originated, said her members wanted "all the options" in their healthcare. [continues 345 words]
CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has been given 10 days to produce closed circuit television footage from Sydney airport, which her lawyers hope will overturn her conviction for importing 4.1 kg of marijuana to Indonesia. The Gold Coast beauty student appeared in Denpasar District court today for the first time since being sentenced to 20 years' jail on May 27 last year. She was launching a judicial review of her case, which after being heard in Bali will be considered by the Indonesian Supreme Court in Jakarta. [continues 200 words]
AUSTRALIAN society has gone to the dogs. The young are intravenously connected to iPods at birth and think nothing of pulling out a pink bit and performing a turkey slap live on national telly. Parents are permissive, schools are postmodern, and cruise ships, once innocuous floating nursing homes, are now dens of druggish vice and nudist iniquity. If only we could return to the golden era. You know, that time when neat nuclear family units flourished behind white picket fences, blissfully free from the multitude of social ills that plague us today. No scary new technology, no sleazesome celebrities, no teenage girls in slutty porn-star singlets. Just good, old-fashioned moral uprightness. [continues 603 words]
FACTORY-produced heroin will be imported into Australia and prescribed for long-term addicts under the Victorian Greens' drugs policy. The Greens -- predicted to hold the balance of power in Victoria after the November state election -- also announced plans for supervised heroin injection rooms, and the scrapping of all criminal penalties for drug use. Greens Victorian upper house candidate Colleen Hartland said the proposals would reduce harm and save lives. "Current approaches are not working, so it is time to step back from the emotional debate and work to implement programs that will effectively tackle the problems associated with legal and illegal drugs," she said. [continues 300 words]
CLINICALLY produced heroin would be imported into Australia to trial a new treatment for long-term addicts under the Victorian Greens drug policy released today. Supervised heroin injection rooms, such as one running in Sydney's Kings Cross, would also be trialled in Victoria while the policy also proposes to scrap all criminal penalties for drug use. The production, sale or trafficking of illicit drugs would remain an offence, but users would only face a court order requiring them to participate in a health scheme. [continues 282 words]
BANNING drug users and dealers from Melbourne's western suburbs would generate a "seagull effect" as the problem would move elsewhere, says prominent outreach worker Les Twentyman. Using court orders to stop people from entering certain suburbs if they are caught using or dealing drugs also would isolate them from services set up to help them, Mr Twentyman said. His comments follow a report in today's Herald Sun newspaper, which says Victoria Police is set to launch Project Reduction which will encompass nine drugs-plagued suburbs and impact on non-residents only. "About four or five years ago in (Sydney's) Cabramatta they had a similar plan where young people were banned from coming into the CBD ... for up to 28 days," Mr Twentyman told the Nine Network today. "The effect was that young people couldn't access the services, particularly Centrelink which meant if they didn't put in their dole form they were cut off ... it put them back into drug and gang activity." Mr Twentyman said his Open Family organisation offered a service in the city's west which saw a doctor provide aid to 50 drug-addicted young people every week, while needle exchange programs also operated in the affected area. "I can understand the frustration of police. [continues 134 words]
A RECORD number of riot police descended on the northern NSW hippie town of Nimbin, but not even the packs of police on foot and horseback could stop the pungent smoke billowing from all corners of the town's Mardi Grass festival. About 6000 people poured into Nimbin -- a former dairy town described by its own state MP, Thomas George, as a "slum" -- bringing their tents, Kombies, bongo drums and fairy wings along for the weekend. Many openly puffed on joints from breakfast onwards, defying the state laws that prohibit the sale and possession of marijuana and other drugs. More than 30 police patrolled the town at any one time, while competitors in the Hemp Olympix battled to win the bong-throwing and joint-rolling competitions. [continues 357 words]
IN 1977, Liberal Party senator Peter Baume chaired a crucial Senate report on Drug Problems in Australia. Subtitled An Intoxicated Society?, this report perceptively argued that, if drug problems were to be tackled effectively, all drugs, including tobacco and alcohol, would have to be dealt with. But little was done until the declaration of Australia's modern "war on drugs" in 1985. After that year's drug summit, prime minister Bob Hawke and NSW premier Neville Wran gave doorstop interviews where they promised "wire taps", "border interdiction", more police: a clampdown on heroin. Unsurprisingly, they did not win the day. Victorian premier Jeff Kennett sensibly refused to sign up to a national campaign unless all drugs were included and only if prevention and treatment were given equal weight to law enforcement. The other states agreed. Thus was born the comprehensive and multilayered Australian approach to drugs. [continues 618 words]
North Korea's Links To A Heroin Run Were Not Presented In Court, Writes Carmel Egan ONE of the great unsolved mysteries of the Pong Su drug trafficking saga is why the smugglers chose to take their 150kg shipment of pure heroin ashore at the worst possible time -- in treacherous seas and gale-force winds off the rocky southwest Victorian coast. Federal agents admit that had the traffickers aboard the Pong Su, a cargo freighter owned by the communist government of North Korea, chosen a calmer night, the 2003 drug run might not have gone so wrong. "The spot they picked on a calm day would probably have been OK," said AFP agent Damien Appleby. [continues 524 words]
THE NSW Government has introduced Australia's first laws specifically targeting the cultivation of hydroponically grown cannabis. The new laws include 10-year jail sentences for people growing as few as five indoor plants, and give police the same powers to raid cannabis houses as they currently possess for premises where they believe heroin and amphetamines are being sold. Hydroponically grown cannabis is five to seven times as powerful as normal cannabis. A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus said yesterday the new laws would be the first in Australia to impose specific penalties for the cultivation of cannabis by methods that enhance the yield and the potency. [continues 212 words]
INDONESIA is braced for a public backlash in Australia against any death sentences meted out to the Bali Nine, says Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda. Prosecutors in Denpasar will start making sentence demands in the next fortnight for the nine Australians, who were arrested in April last year over a failed bid to smuggle 8kg of heroin worth $4 million from Bali to Sydney. Most trial watchers expect them to demand death sentences for some or all of the group, possibly straining relations with Australia. The requests to judges in Denpasar District Court will be delivered less than two months after a public outcry in Australia over Singapore's decision to hang Australian drug courier Nguyen Tuong Van. [continues 328 words]
SNIFFER dogs used by police to arrest revellers at Melbourne's Summadayze festival on Sunday could turn party-goers to harder and more dangerous drugs that cannot be detected, a drugs expert has warned. Paul Dillon, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's information manager, said sniffer dogs used by police as a deterrent against recreational drug use could lead party-goers to harder drugs such asGHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), an odourless recreational substance. Victorian police used dogs to make 31 arrests at Summadayze, where more than 23,000 patrons kick-started the new year. [continues 304 words]
An Australian lawyer has launched action in the Federal Court to bring home two heroin addicts now living in destitute circumstances overseas after being deported on character grounds. Robert Jovicic attracted headlines last month after he claimed he was ready to die on the steps of the Australian embassy in Serbia to which he was deported on character grounds although he had never lived there. Mr Jovicic, whose parents were Serbian, arrived Australia in 1968 from France where he was born, and spent 36 of his 38 years living in Australia, but never acquired citizenship. [continues 341 words]
AUSTRALIAN drug-runner Nguyen Tuong Van has been executed in Singapore, but his death has not halted the stupidity of those that seek to blame the Howard Government over his death. Chief among this brigade must be Melbourne barrister Robert Richter who has launched a personal attack on members of the Government, but in doing so, has offended every Australian who comprehends the extent of suffering of Australian prisoners at the hands of the Japanese in Changi during World War II. [continues 807 words]
JENNY Downing has lost one son to the mental illness brought on by marijuana and almost lost another. Now she wants John Howard and other parents to learn from the mistake she made of letting the drug into her family. Mrs Downing, who lives in the South Australian country town of Maitland, watched as her sons Ben and Tim descended into chronic marijuana abuse, losing touch with their family - and reality - for more than 10 years. Both edged towards mental illness before Ben managed to kick the addiction. His older brother Tim - the stronger-willed of the two - is lost to the family, full of suspicion and paranoia. [continues 310 words]
THE lawyer for a German woman freed after facing execution in Singapore on drug charges has criticised Australia's last-ditch bid to save condemned Nguyen Tuong Van as too late. Subhas Anandan, who represented Julia Suzanne Bohl - released earlier this year despite originally being charged with possession of a quantity of marijuana that would have brought the death penalty - said the flurry of activity by Australian authorities was "like visiting a dead person in hospital". And he questioned why the Australian and Victorian governments would mount "such a diplomatic effort" on behalf of Van after he was convicted of heroin trafficking, rather than when he was first charged. [continues 449 words]
