Drugs

Tink said:

The consignment has an estimated street value in Australia of $1.29 billion.

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I wonder what it is worth as street value in the US by comparison. Seems like a massive addition to risk to EXPORT from a country of 325+ million to a country of a meagre 25 million.
What tariffs do we pay for that? x drug deaths, x broken lives, x broken families, x hospitalisations, x burglaries/robberies/thefts, x police resources ...the list goes on.

Junior said:

Almost everyone I know in my social circles dabbled in drugs (coke, E, speed, MDMA, weed) through their 20s, and many still do from time to time (mid-30s).

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I was the opposite, only ever knew a couple of people who did that sort of thing and I'm no longer in contact with either.

I wouldn't consider myself conservative as such though, just not into messing with chemicals.

My personal view on this pill testing idea though is much like my views decades ago on questions like gay marriage or voluntary euthanasia for people with terminal illnesses etc. All things considered, the argument for the "yes" case seems to vastly outweigh any negatives.

If people are gay then they are gay. No amount of moral crusading over a very long period of time managed to change that one. Let people be happy. That one shouldn't have taken anywhere near as long as it did.

If someone has terminal cancer and is in pain then they have terminal cancer and are in pain. Medical research might fix it someday but it hasn't yet. Why make someone suffer? It saddens me greatly that we haven't sorted this one yet for humans although we've been doing it for dogs and cats for decades.

If people are going to use drugs then in practice they're going to use drugs. The last few decades of trying to stamp it out have failed so whilst I do think all possible efforts should be made to cut off supply, reality is it's not going to be totally effective so that leaves minimising harm as the next logical step. May as well test the pills then - that's better than not testing them surely.

That said, I do think we need stronger action to protect others from the effects of someone's drug use. Random testing of construction workers and drivers is all well and good but it needs to be extended to people like corporate board members, CEO's, politicians, judges and so on who make decisions impacting others. Instant dismissal if caught under the influence of any mind altering drug whilst at work.

Trouble is they test urine so your not necessarily under the influence

Go skiing in Whistler for 4 weeks get on the Ganga which is perfectly legal
Return to work in Australia get urine tested and your unemployed

Tom Elliott has praised Victoria Police for busting an alleged drug den in North Richmond.

But he says Victorians have every right to be a little confused by the state’s attitude towards drugs.

The government-run injecting room is only a few hundred metres away.

Four people were arrested during the sting on the public housing commission flat this week.

Two have since been charged.

Tom Elliott questioned whether those involved would be allowed back into the flat, given they were allegedly using a taxpayer-funded facility to facilitate crime.

The government has told 3AW Drive it had a “zero tolerance” towards illegal activity.

But Tom questioned what made this house different to others.

“I see it (drug dealing) all the time,” he said.

“It is rampant in Richmond.

“I just don’t understand why the police don’t do anything.”

https://www.3aw.com.au/tom-elliott-praises-police-over-drug-bust-but-says-hes-a-little-confused/

So two druggos got caught in a taxpayer funded rat trap.

Works for me

Sharp criticism and concern from politicians, police


Programs deemed successful

Tink said:

Tom Elliott has praised Victoria Police for busting an alleged drug den in North Richmond.

But he says Victorians have every right to be a little confused by the state’s attitude towards drugs.

The government-run injecting room is only a few hundred metres away.

Four people were arrested during the sting on the public housing commission flat this week.

Two have since been charged.

Tom Elliott questioned whether those involved would be allowed back into the flat, given they were allegedly using a taxpayer-funded facility to facilitate crime.

The government has told 3AW Drive it had a “zero tolerance” towards illegal activity.

But Tom questioned what made this house different to others.

“I see it (drug dealing) all the time,” he said.

“It is rampant in Richmond.

“I just don’t understand why the police don’t do anything.”

https://www.3aw.com.au/tom-elliott-praises-police-over-drug-bust-but-says-hes-a-little-confused/

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Victorians have every right to be a little confused by the state’s attitude towards drink driving after wine served at Parliament House events


http://events.parliament.vic.gov.au/food-wine/

Among people 50 and up with substance abuse problems, men are more likely to abuse alcohol. Women are more likely to abuse prescription drugs. You're at a higher risk of abusing drugs or alcohol in your later years if you:

• Are white
• Have a higher income
• Live alone
• Lost your spouse
• Retired unexpectedly or were laid off
• Have long-lasting (chronic) pain
• Are disabled
• Have a history of substance abuse or mental illness
• https://www.webmd.com/mental-health...8zXFn4Y9Sa6bseuHnVev1imbCexA6bcodQzU=_leadCTA

Huge sting by AFP , FBI and Police units around the world.

Seems like they managed to create an ap and it get inside an encrypted communication network that was then distributed amongst thousands of bikes, drug runners and various criminal groups. They have been collecting evidence of various crimes for some time.

BIG sting. Will be interesting to see who gets swept up as collateral damage. Would be no surprise to see some public figures being fingered here.

Live updates: AFP provides details of Operation Ironside bust tackling organised crime operations​

Australia's criminal underworld has been smashed by a police sting that tricked mafia, bikie and global gang heavyweights into delivering their plans straight into the hands of detectives, authorities say.

basilio said:

Live updates: AFP provides details of Operation Ironside bust tackling organised crime operations

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I don't really get this. Another article on this story says: The plan, which was conceived by Australian law officers and the FBI in 2018, saw officials in the United States take control of a messaging app called ANOM, which authorities said was popular with organised criminals.

Why do they need to disclose this level of detail. I am sure there must be some crims using that app that are oblivious to the fact that it is compromised so keeping quiet about it could still unearth more actual or planned crime.

bellenuit said:

I don't really get this. Another article on this story says: The plan, which was conceived by Australian law officers and the FBI in 2018, saw officials in the United States take control of a messaging app called ANOM, which authorities said was popular with organised criminals.

Why do they need to disclose this level of detail. I am sure there must be some crims using that app that are oblivious to the fact that it is compromised so keeping quiet about it could still unearth more actual or planned crime.

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Interesting. I understand that the FBI etc in fact created and controlled the ap in entirety. I think that there was some legal privacy process which stopped them from simply keeping the ap operational indefinitely.

I'm interested in what is going to happen to the millions of incidental communications. In particular what will happen to various lawyers, accountants, politicians, big name people who may also have communicated with these people ?

From a legal perspective I wonder about communication between lawyers and clients as privileged information ? Looking forward to these questions being raised.

He ( Commissioner Kershaw) said legal authorities prevented the app from being covertly used for a longer timeframe.

'Heavy blow' for criminals as more than 200 underworld figures charged after app sting

More than 200 members of Australia's mafia and bikie underworld have been arrested in the nation's biggest-ever crime sting, police say.

www.abc.net.au

Further details on how the FBI successfully marketed the ANOM ap through criminal gangs.

As I suspected there will also be repercussions at political levels.

The Trojan Shield investigation has uncovered that Anom devices are used by TCOs to traffic drugs and launder the proceeds of those drug sales," the document reads. "The distributors of these devices also obstruct justice by remotely wiping the content of devices when law enforcement seizes them. Additionally, the review of Anom messages has initiated numerous high-level public corruption cases in several countries. The most prominent distributors are currently being investigated by the FBI for participating in an enterprise which promotes international drug trafficking, money laundering, and obstruction of justice."

Why crims wanted this phone and paid thousands of dollars for one.

https://www.facebook.com/

Clear summary from an international perspective of the world wide raids using ANOM information.

Sydney still the cocaine capital, from this story it sounds as though there are plenty using it.
From the article:
Recently released survey data from the National National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre shows the number of NSW residents reporting cocaine use increased from about one in 30 to one in 20 between 2016 and 2019, with men and women in their 20s most likely to have used the drug.

Even as consumption surges in other parts of Australia, it’s Sydney that remains the nation’s cocaine capital. As of October last year, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s wastewater analysis, Sydney was consuming 15 doses of cocaine per 1000 people on an average day. This compared to Melbourne’s six doses per 1000 people, Brisbane’s five and Canberra’s 10. Of the 5.7 tonnes of cocaine the ACIC estimates the country consumed in 2019-20, 3 tonnes were consumed in NSW.

Australians pay a premium price for cocaine, forking out a minimum of $300 for a gram – enough for up to 10 lines or doses. This makes the country among the most expensive markets for the drug. The average global price is $127, according to the Global Drug Survey. Americans pay $88, Colombians just less than $10.

At The Banyans “luxury rehabilitation clinic” in south-east Queensland, about two in five people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction come from Sydney.

“The average patient looks like someone that you work with in the office day to day and you may have no idea they have developed a dependency,” says chief executive Ruth Limkin.

The clinic, which has six registered doctors on staff and only takes eight patients at a time, is receiving “more and more inquiries” about cocaine addiction, Limkin says. People usually seek help after a crisis – such as a medical episode, relationship breakdown or run-in with the law – or an intervention from a loved one or workplace.
“We really treat it as a health issue, not that someone’s done something bad,” she says. The program involves a mix of medical and psychological support as well as wellness strategies and activities.

Fees range from $49,000 to $90,000 for a four-week stay followed three to 12 months of ongoing support through telehealth. It is expensive, but those who sign on have generally been spending $10,000 to $20,000 a week on cocaine. The clinic says people who take part in their program show improvement in an average of 74 per cent of their dependency measures

These are the same people we tax payers end up paying to try and get them home etc.

Selfish and stupid they are.

“Yes, I can confirm Adam died from a fentanyl overdose. The fentanyl crisis in this country must be taken more seriously. It seems it is just flowing over the borders and nothing is being done about it. We must do better.”

In 2023, drug overdose fatalities topped 112,000 for the first time in U.S. history, surpassing the devastation wrought by the crack cocaine crisis in the 1980s and the opioid epidemic of the early 2000s, NPR reported in December. Public health experts said that fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is responsible for a majority of those deaths.

In Los Angeles County alone, fentanyl was the cause of more than 60% of accidental drug or alcohol overdoses in 2022.

- About 12 minutes in.
July 16, 2024 - The crackdown on drug gangs in El Salvadore is being taken very seriously. In my view, there is no taking it too far. Some may end up in the net who should not be - worth it?