Minor differences at microscopic level can produce substances very similar in effect to drugs of dependence, but that aren't specifically listed in any of the schedules of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. Provisions in state and Commonwealth legislation prohibit these copycats so that their possession and sale is illegal even if a …
Month: October 2011
Legislation Watch: Sentencing Amendment (Community Correction Reform) Bill 2011
Intensive Correction Management Orders (ICMOs, discussed here) are going to go, without ever having been. In their place will be Community Corrections Orders (CCOs), for most purposes exactly the same thing. In September the Attorney-General said,Using new powers under the CCO, courts may require offenders to pay a bond that will be forfeited if the …
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Legislation Watch: Bonged off
The Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Prohibition of Display and Sale of Cannabis Water Pipes) Act was assented to last week. The Explanatory Memorandum is here, and the Second Reading is here.It will come into effect on 1 January 2012. My flip through the legislation suggests that it looks a lot like the Drugs, …
Green v The Queen [2011] VSCA 311: just punishment, specific deterrence and Verdins
This is another post about Verdins. In that case, Maxwell P, Buchanan and Vincent JJA laid out six principles [at 32]: 1. The condition may reduce the moral culpability of the offending conduct, as distinct from the offender’s legal responsibility. Where that is so, the condition affects the punishment that is just in all the …
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Sentencing not to deter claims of innocence
In R v Kumar [2011] NSWCCA 139 the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal allowed Rajendra Kumar's appeal application. The applicant was found guilty of accessing and possessing child pornography, receiving 5 years jail with a 3 year non-parole period for accessing child pornography, and 3 years jail with a 2 year non-parole period …
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