Last year, one of our readers sent me an article about one of two pending appeals in the Supreme Court of the United States about the use of drug-dogs and the admissibility of searches and seizures based on drug-dog indications.The two appeals are Florida v Jardines and Florida v Harris. An overview of the cases …
Continue reading Nose for crime or just bad scents? Drug dogs and the search-or-sniff dichotomy
It’s trite to say that the proper exercise of a court's jurisdiction often (though not always) requires the giving of reasons for its decisions. In Shu Zhang v West Sands Pty Ltd [2010] VSC 36, Byrne J said [at 15]:It has been said again and again that the duty of a judicial officer is to …
Cultivation is a term that is frequently used when referring to the growing of cannabis plants. In general terms, what amounts to cultivation is a question of fact for a jury. However, there is also the threshold question of whether an act or series of acts is capable of amounting to cultivation at law.Section 70 …
Continue reading Grozdanov v The Queen [2012] VSCA 94: the meaning of cultivate
Minor differences at microscopic level can produce substances very similar in effect to prohibited 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 various state and Commonwealth legislation prohibit these copycats so that their possession and sale is illegal even …
Continue reading Daley v Tasmania [2012] TASCCA 4: designer drug derivatives and analogues
Offences under s 49 of the Road Safety Act 1986 are notorious for overlap.Since before Mills v Meeking (1990) 169 CLR 214 it has been observed that the prosecution gets significant forensic advantage from charging the same act in several different ways. (And s 51 of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1981 allows them to …