Legal thresholds serious drug offences expert advice
In Australia one of the key measures for distinguishing drug users from traffickers and for determining the seriousness of drug trafficking offences is the quantity of drug involved. Legislative thresholds define the quantity of drug necessary for an offence of trafficking or an offence of minor, mid or high end trafficking, with three thresholds defined in most jurisdictions.
To date there has been surprisingly little use of research to inform decisions on how threshold quantities should be set or what threshold quantities should be used.
This report outlines a new approach to informing the design of drug trafficking thresholds using evidence on Australian drug markets, drug trafficking and the impacts of drug use/trafficking on the community. It provides expert advice to the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety on the drug trafficking thresholds specified in Schedule 1 of the ACT Criminal Code Regulation 2005 as they apply to the five most commonly used illicit drugs (heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and cannabis).
Understanding the impact of opioid agonist treatment in reducing crime
By Dr Natasa Gisev, Scientia Fellow, National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreIn a recently published study, we examined the link between opioid agonist treatment (OAT) and crime in nearly 11,000 people in New South Wales (NSW).
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