In Melbourne’s famous laneways,there is life – and death
Drug reform

In Melbourne’s famous laneways,there is life – and death

In one laneway,people sip wine at a table under a heater. In another,someone is crouched behind a bin on the hard ground ready to inject. Their drug of choice is illegal,and without a safe injecting room,they have nowhere else to go.

  • bySophie Aubrey andCara Waters

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Emotional Lyon remembers ‘special young man’ as former AFL player’s death probed
Updated
AFL 2024

Emotional Lyon remembers ‘special young man’ as former AFL player’s death probed

Sport Integrity Australia is reported to be probing the death of former Docker and Demon Harley Balic,as part of its investigation into the AFL’s illicit drug policy.

  • byJon Pierik,Carla Jaeger andMichael Gleeson
Criminals infiltrate the elite taskforce formed to stop drugs landing in Australia
Exclusive
China relations

Criminals infiltrate the elite taskforce formed to stop drugs landing in Australia

An elite Fijian police unit working with Australia and New Zealand to fight surging drug trafficking in the Pacific may have been compromised by a powerful criminal syndicate.

  • byNick McKenzie
‘People are still going to be dying in alleyways’:The lost battle for a second safe injecting room
Melbourne

‘People are still going to be dying in alleyways’:The lost battle for a second safe injecting room

Saade Melki says the safe injecting room in Richmond stopped him from overdosing. He is shocked that plans to build another one in the city have been abandoned.

  • byJewel Topsfield
Jacinta Allan shows she’s not Andrews but risks her party’s wrath
Analysis
Drug reform

Jacinta Allan shows she’s not Andrews but risks her party’s wrath

The premier abandoned Daniel Andrews’ promise to build a second safe injecting room,despite her own faction pushing strongly for it.

  • byKieran Rooney
Melbourne will not get a second injecting room while Allan is premier
Updated
Drug reform

Melbourne will not get a second injecting room while Allan is premier

Premier Jacinta Allan has drawn a line under the debate about a second injecting room in Melbourne by going against an expert report to say it will never be built.

  • byRachel Eddie,Kieran Rooney andCara Waters
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Man accused of ‘cocaine brick’ plot is a construction boss by day
Crime

Man accused of ‘cocaine brick’ plot is a construction boss by day

In the middle of the night,a small crew set out into the ocean off Australia’s east coast. Police say they had been tasked with one objective:to collect bricks of cocaine.

  • byCloe Read
Man charged over botched drug import after cocaine bricks wash up on NSW beaches
Updated
Crime

Man charged over botched drug import after cocaine bricks wash up on NSW beaches

Federal police say the drugs were offloaded from a cargo ship into waters off Brisbane. However,“adverse weather conditions” scuppered the cocaine drop.

  • byJessica McSweeney,Cloe Read andMillie Muroi
Psychedelics and trauma:How one survivor of festival terror attack ‘felt no fear’
Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Psychedelics and trauma:How one survivor of festival terror attack ‘felt no fear’

For a group of Israeli researchers,the attack on the music festival has created a rare opportunity to study the intersection of trauma and psychedelics.

  • byNatan Odenheimer,Aaron Boxerman andGal Koplewitz
Record-breaking seizure of more than 700kg of Xanax
Crime

Record-breaking seizure of more than 700kg of Xanax

Estimated by police to be worth more than $12 million,the seizure from a storage unit in Sydney’s south is the largest for pharmaceutical drugs in NSW history.

  • byAnthony Segaert andSally Rawsthorne
‘Once-in-a-generation’ overhaul to prison drug program will help ‘missed’ inmates
Exclusive
Prisons

‘Once-in-a-generation’ overhaul to prison drug program will help ‘missed’ inmates

Prisoners across the state will now have access to treatment for drug and alcohol issues immediately after arrest under a new $2.5 million intervention pilot.

  • bySally Rawsthorne