The panel, led by the former health watchdog Ron Paterson, spent roughly 10 months consulting people around the country, holding more than 400 meetings and considering about 5000 submissions. The recommendations include taking strong action on drugs by enacting a stricter regulatory approach to the sale and supply of alcohol and replacing criminal sanctions for the possession for personal use…

Different drugs are associated with different risks, and the whole idea of regulation is to manage and reduce risk, so the regulatory tools you’d deploy are going to vary. Within stimulants there’s an enormous array of products and risks, so you’d have various models to regulate price, potency, packaging, vendors and marketing, but the principles and goals are the same.…

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is due to land in Manila this weekend, when supporters fear she could be arrested, after she and her company were formally indicted on multiple counts of tax evasion this week, charges critics say are politically motivated and designed to silence independent media in the southeast Asian country. […]

Dr David Caldicott, the clinical lead at the ANU’s Australian Medicinal Cannabis Observatory, told The RiotACT that a bill like Pettersson’s could limit the drug’s availability to underage consumers and undermine the illicit drug market in the ACT. “From a public health perspective, there are merits to an argument of a regulated market,” Caldicott said. […]

A coalition of community groups said there was no proof mandatory treatment worked and warned it would operate at an exorbitant cost. The SA Council of Social Services, Australian Medical Association, SA Network of Drug and Alcohol Services, Uniting Communities and Guardian for Children and Young People Penny Wright all called for the Bill to be withdrawn until a proposal…

Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros, who has railed against the drug killings, said the court decision proved that extrajudicial killings under Mr Duterte’s crackdown were really being committed by rogue members of the national police force. “This is a light in the darkness,” Ms Hontiveros said in a statement. “Despite the gruesome climate of killing and impunity in the country, this…

Tasmania’s innovative Dark Mofo festival has joined the debate about pill-testing at music festivals in the island state. Tasmanian festivals should be able to offer legal pill testing in order to save lives, says Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael. […]

Usually, problems are photosensitive. Put them to the light and they disappear. Prohibition keeps us in the dark. There’s difficulty for research, for understanding the ramifications, of getting data, of understanding why people do it. The paradigm needs to change to move beyond the failure—and drug control is a failure as it is now. […]

A major push to legalise recreational marijuana has been launched in the ACT where a young Labor pollie claims he has overwhelming support for his bill on the issue. If it gets enough support it would allow adults in the state to keep up to 50g of cannabis or four plants legally. […]

Mr Petterson plans to introduce a bill before the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Assembly this week so adults possessing up to 50 grams of cannabis or four cannabis plants would no longer be committing an offence. A spokeswoman for ACT Labor confirmed the party was united in support of the bill, with 12 votes in favour. […]