Manuel Cardoso, who is credited for his role in reforming the Portuguese system in 2001, told Fairfax Media that Australia should decriminalise all drugs and treat drug use and abuse as a public health issue rather than one of criminal justice. “Decriminalising is considered by the United Nations as a good practice, the International Narcotic Control Board consider that the…

Three people are taking NSW Police to court over a controversial plan to deny entry to a Sydney concert anyone who is singled out by a sniffer dog – regardless of whether drugs are actually found. In conjunction with The Greens’ Sniff Off campaign, three of the festival’s patrons said on Thursday they plan to seek an urgent injunction in…

From crime to health to business, Canada’s decision to legalize marijuana is a grand progressive experiment that promises to answer a host of questions, […]

“Bestival strongly advises festival goers to avoid taking any illegal substances,” says a Bestival spokesperson in a statement. “However, harm reduction and customer welfare are our priorities, so we have made the decision to bring The Loop onboard to offer drug safety testing onsite, giving people the opportunity to make informed choices.” […]

Fans may want to think twice before attending ‘Above and Beyond’ music gig as police warn fans will be kicked out if a drug sniffer dog just sits next to them. They will be refused entry regardless of whether drugs are even found on them. Fans are slamming the police for harsh warning: ‘So presumed guilty even after being proven…

The decision has been slammed by politicians, drug safety advocates and civil libertarians who point to the questionable reliability of sniffer dogs and argue that police are abusing their powers. “Penalising people for the failure of the drug dog program is a clear abuse of police powers,” NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said. […]

A new police policy around drugs, sniffer dogs and music festivals may be illegal and ”a clear abuse of police powers,” lawyers say. It’s a fundamentally flawed approach. Sniffer dogs are notoriously ineffective, producing false positives up to 80 percent of the time. By this logic, 4 in 5 people approached by dogs at the Above and Beyond — many of…

The evidence so far suggests that, far from encouraging drug-taking, testing services seem to make people think twice. The Loop reports that 10-15% of the drug users it deals with decide to ditch their stash on learning what is really in it (which has included everything from concrete to anti-malaria medicine). […]

Even though legalisation for recreational use is so far limited to cannabis in Uruguay, Alaska, California, Washington and Colorado, Noffs thinks there will be a domino effect. “It’s inevitable, partly because big pharma and those behind the recreational cannabis push in the US are going for it, so there’s a market force there, but also, people are starting to see…

Pill testing in Australia has taken another positive step forward, with a Northern Territory minister stating it should be made available at music festivals. NT Assistant Police Minister Jeff Collins said there had been a lot of measures “to try and reduce the number of pills taken, including sniffer dogs and the like.” […]