'Ice' blamed for escalating violence

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has warned the rising use of methamphetamines in Western Australia is escalating the level of violence in the community.

In the past few months there have been scores of extremely violent assaults across the state, and Commissioner O'Callaghan says many are fuelled by drugs such as methamphetamines, also known as 'ice'.

In recent weeks there have several high-profile assaults including the weekend bashing of Bruce Norton in Cooloongup with a metal picket.

Commissioner O'Callaghan says a proposal put forward at the State Government's recent ice summit to punish dealers who push drugs near schools or nightclubs should be pushed through quickly.

"People are committing what we call street-level robberies to get money to buy drugs or to buy alcohol or whatever," he said.

"People who sell amphetamines to young people or sell amphetamines in the vicinity of schools or licensed premises will be subject to much more severe penalties than they would otherwise," he said.

"Probably starting this week we're going to send a senior officer around to all of the licensed premises in an area like Northbridge and say we're going to blitz this area on Saturday night so get your act together."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia -Web)
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/

Man to front court accused of gun, drug offences

A 40-year-old man is due to face court today in Murwillumbah, in northern New South Wales, after police allegedly found guns and drugs on his property.

Police raided a Kyogle Road property yesterday, allegedly finding an underground bunker that housed an elaborate hydroponic cannabis set up.

It is also alleged that amphetamines, prohibited weapons, explosives and a large quantity of ammunition was found.

The man was charged with a number of drug and weapon offences.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 9 Aug 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation North Coast, NSW (Australia -Web)
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/

Police dismantle illegal drug lab

Adelaide police say a two-year-old child has been found inside a Salisbury Downs house where the occupants had allegedly been growing marijuana and making amphetamines.

Police have been dismantling an illegal laboratory at the house in Martins Road.

They were given a tip off and arrested four people, including the child's parents.

Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Shanahan says clandestine laboratories can be very dangerous.

"To have a child present during these times is extremely dangerous, chemicals aren't stable," she said.

"We have seen occasions where there have been explosions as a result of hydroponic crops, there's been fires and as a result of clan labs we have seen fires as well."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 9 Aug 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia -Web)
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/

Cannabis linked to use of amphetamines

Doctors have tracked 2,000 Victorian high school students for 10 years and found those who were smoking cannabis at the age of 15 were as much as 15 times more likely to be using amphetamines in their early 20s.

The work, to be published in the August edition of the journal Addiction also dispels the image of ice and speed users as young, wealthy party-goers.

"That's something which people have speculated on for decades and decades - that there was some progression in the way in which young people are introduced to drugs. You start with tobacco and alcohol, move to cannabis, once you feel comfortable with the former, once you feel comfortable with cannabis, you're more likely to move onto other drugs. And that's certainly the progression that we found with amphetamine use," one of the report's authors, Professor George Patton, said.

"So the message here is not that this was a group of sort of aspirant party-going young adults who didn't have a history of some other use. These amphetamine users look very much like our very heavy cannabis users, and those who are using other illicit drugs.

Professor Patton says there are a number of things we can learn from this research.

"One, I think we need to remain vigilant about drug use. We've seen tremendous rises in amphetamine use in a relatively short space of time, a lot more people using. If they were to move on and young people were to be using amphetamines more frequently, then that would be a major problem," he said.

"But, look, I think the message is that use of drugs to excess, misuse of drugs, is something which really begins back in the teens. That's where we need to have a major focus."

Professor Patton says the research also does away with the idea of harmless experimentation and soft drugs.

"Well, yeah. Even experimentation at a young age is a problem," he said.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 18 July 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia -Web)
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/

Australian DJ 'addicted' to cocaine

• Took drugs 'to beat anxiety'
• Taylor says unknown person gave him cocaine
• Faces possible 10-year prison sentence

AUSTRALIAN musician Nicholas Bernard Taylor had fallen into a full-blown cocaine addiction in an attempt to beat chronic anxiety, physical tremors and Parkinson's disease, a court in Bali heard yesterday.

Taylor, 41, was arrested at a party in a private villa in the upmarket Balinese suburb of Kerobokan two months ago with 0.32g of the drug.

Police alleged Taylor was trying to run away when they apprehended him and two others.

Taylor, who had hours earlier been performing as a disc jockey at the nearby Club 66, said he was given the cocaine by an unknown person in the club, and had later consumed some at the villa.

He faces 10 years' jail under Indonesia's harsh drugs laws, but that will be reduced to just three months if he can convince judges he is an addict - an increasingly common strategy, and one already used with success in other cases by Taylor's defence team.

Evidence was presented in Denpasar District Court yesterday by a prominent Indonesian psychiatrist, an Australian general practitioner, Taylor's Australian girlfriend and the two men arrested with him that he been dependent on cocaine for several years.

The Australian doctor, Peter Dobie, from Lismore on the NSW north coast, swore in a written affidavit that he had been treating Taylor since 2004 for addiction, anxiety and hand tremors, which were "most likely due to the early onset of Parkinson's disease".

Bali psychiatrist Denny Thong, who two years ago provided crucial evidence that helped free Sydney model Michelle Leslie early after her arrest with two ecstasy pills at a dance party, said he was convinced Taylor was addicted to cocaine.

Dr Thong visited Taylor in his police cell at the request of the musician's lawyer, Erwin Siregar - the same attorney who failed in his bid to have Australian marijuana trafficker Schapelle Corby escape her drug importation charges in the same court almost three years ago.

"He admitted to me that he was addicted, and that without cocaine he had no confidence in himself (as a DJ)," the drug law reform campaigner told judges.

Italian businessman Andrea Baldini, 40, who rented the luxury villa raided on June 11, and Belgian chef Jean-Francois Brouck, 32, also admitted in court yesterday that they had been found in possession of cocaine by arresting police.

Both Baldini and Brouck denied having ever used drugs with Taylor, although the Italian testified he had known for "about a year" of the Australian's addiction.

All three are being held in Bali's Kerobokan jail, also home to Corby and Australia's Bali Nine heroin trafficking gang.

Taylor's case returns to court next Monday, when prosecutors will make sentencing submissions.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/
Pubdate: Tues, 7 Aug 2007
Source: news.com.au(Australia- Web)
Reporter: Stephen Fitzpatrick
Website: http://www.news.com.au

Aussie DJ on trial in Bali

AN Australian music DJ facing drugs charges in Bali has apologised for using cocaine but says it makes him feel relaxed, comfortable and less anxious.

Nick Taylor, 41, from Bangalow in NSW, told a court of three judges yesterday he was addicted to the drug.

His girlfriend told the court he had been using cocaine for five years, for "insecurity, nerves" and "shaking" caused by Parkinson's disease.

And a Bali doctor testified that Taylor had told him he needed cocaine to help his job as a DJ and that without the drug he lacked confidence. It was an all too familiar scene with an equally familiar cast – an Australian in Denpasar District Court, caught in Bali with drugs.

His lawyer is Erwin Siregar, the same lawyer representing Schapelle Corby, some members of the Bali Nine and Ronald Ramsay, the drug addict brother of millionaire British TV chef Gordon Ramsay, whose case was postponed yesterday.

And the local doctor, psychiatrist Denny Thong, who testified in Taylor's trial yesterday that he was an addict, is the same doctor who testified in Ronnie Ramsay's trial, the case of Australian model Michelle Leslie caught with ecstasy and a host of other foreigners arrested on the island.

Taylor was arrested on June 10 this year along with an Italian and Belgian man after police, acting on a tip-off that a drug party was under way, raided a private villa in Kerobokan.

He faces three separate charges, the most serious of which is drug possession, which carries a maximum 10-year jail term.

Taylor testified that he had been given the drug during a stint of DJ work at the popular Double Six club in Seminyak but had not known it was cocaine until later when he went home and used some before going to the villa where he was arrested.

Asked if he felt sorry, Taylor replied: "Yes, very much."

His girlfriend, with whom he has lived for 10 years, Brigitte Hedwig Kaelin, testified on his behalf that Taylor had been seeing a doctor in Australia for anxiety and drug problems, mostly the use of "uppers, cocaine".

Prosecutors will deliver their sentence demand in one week.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/
Pubdate: Tues, 7 Aug 2007
Source: couriermail.com.au (Australia- Web)
Reporter: Cindy Wockner and Komag Suriadi
Website: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/