Two Victorian women, with alleged connections to Albanian organised crime, have been charged for their alleged involvement in a cannabis trafficking plot and are expected to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court today (5 February, 2025). The Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (JOCTF) initially charged a Hillside man in September 2024, for his alleged involvement in the […]

Western region officers have dismantled a large-scale drug syndicate operating out of the Orana region under Strike Force Meridan.   In July 2024, officers attached to Orana Mid-Western Police District commenced Strike Force Meridan to investigate the organised supply of drugs in the Orana region.   Following extensive investigations, strike force officers – with assistance […]

The writing, is as they say, on the wall. The BMJ notes the prevailing trend eclining US drug overdose deaths show that public health approaches work The US overdose crisis contributed to over 100 000 deaths in 2023.1 The 22% decrease in overdose deaths between August 2023 and August 2024 relative to the preceding 12 months1—the most […]

The Trump administration issued an executive order (EO) on January 20, 2025, to create a process to designate some international criminal organizations and drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). There have been no updates to the State Department’s list of FTOs yet. To be designated an FTO, the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism (SDBCT) must demonstrate that the […]

Civil Beat The issue is back again this session in the form of House Bill 1246, which would legalize the personal use of marijuana for people 21 years of age and older beginning in 2026. But HB 1246 goes beyond legalization. It calls for creating a new state agency within the Department of Commerce and Consumer […]

For the second year in a row, House and Senate lawmakers have approved legislation (HB 2485 | SB 970) regulating the adult-use marijuana market. However, the bills most likely will be vetoed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who acknowledged last month in his State of the Commonwealth address that he wouldn’t seriously consider any legislative efforts to establish a retail marijuana […]