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Common depictions of buying and selling illicit drugs online centre on how drug market actors engage in dark web drug cryptomarkets, but the supply of illicit drugs also takes place in 'plain site' on the surface web. Drawing on netnographic observations and qualitative interviews with hard-to-reach buyers and vendors (n = 20), this paper explores LeafedOut, a specific, popular surface web platform, that provides a conduit for local cannabis exchanges. We found that the platform enabled easy access and supply at the local level but increased some specific risks to those involved. Actors neutralised the perceived risks of drug supply over this surface web platform through the broader societal normalisation of cannabis use/supply, adopting encrypted messaging applications to cover 'digital traces', and developing various methods to establish trust with an exchange partner (e.g. review systems, sending selfies with drug paraphernalia, selectively choosing meet-up locations). This paper expands our understanding of the growing number of online illicit drug markets by shifting attention from dark web cryptomarkets to the much more widely accessed surface/clear web. Theoretical implications for the study of trust and risk in online illicit drug market exchanges are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research concerned with the experience of immigration detention focuses on the general immigration detention population, which mainly consists of men. This means that the experiences of men are treated as the norm, despite it being likely that women experience immigration detention differently. This study addresses this gap by focusing on the experiences of women detainees in long-term immigration detention in Australia. It examines the effects of long-term immigration detention on their mental health through a descriptive quantitative analysis and a qualitative inductive thematic analysis of data contained in publically available reports released by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Commonwealth Ombudsman. This study provides empirical detail describing how the experiences of women held in long-term immigration detention are similar and different to those of the general immigration detention population. We conclude by considering how these differences can be understood through a gendered understanding of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug policy in Australia is underpinned by the idea of partnerships wherein the non-government sector is one important partner in both delivering services and contributing to policy and decision-making processes. This article presents a genealogy of the concept of government/non-government 'partnerships', tracing its emergence and development within drug policy discourse in Australia. We find that the rise of neo-liberal policies since the 1980s has been a key factor facilitating the emergence of government/non-government 'partnerships' rhetoric in drug policy. Since the 1980s, the role of non-government organisations (NGOs) in drug policy has been articulated in relation to 'community' responsibilisation in contrast to the welfarist reliance on expert intervention. We link the rise of this rhetoric with the neo-liberal turn to governing through community and the individualisation of social problems. Furthermore, although we find that governments on the whole have encouraged the service delivery and policy work of NGOs at least in policy rhetoric, the actions of the state have at times limited the ability of NGOs to perform advocacy work and contribute to policy. Constraints on NGO drug policy work could potentially compromise the responsiveness of drug policy systems by limiting opportunities for innovative policy-making and service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores contemporary challenges that community policing practices pose to unified understandings of sovereignty that traditionally underpin the delivery of state-centred policing in developed states. Fleming (Sage: 37-39, 2009) suggests that community policing is about partnerships, consultation and building trust in communities. Through a case study of the development of a local security network in an inner suburb of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia), I explore how state police work with other community agencies. Interviews with police and service providers identified past experience of policing in remote or international contexts, and an appreciation of community development principles, as factors that contribute to effective community policing. I discuss these claims, drawing on international policing literature that critically evaluates capacity building in a range of so-called fragile states, arguing that greater consideration of policing in differently organised states could reshape our understanding and expectations of community policing at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the responses of the communities to the homosexual law reform and towards the homosexuals as a whole in Australia. It mentions that the discrimination and upsurge in public violence against homosexuals have contributed on the monitoring of laws and social practices. It clarifies that the being a homosexual is not an offence in any Australian jurisdiction, but it is the homosexual acts which have been outlawed and remained criminal offences. Concerns in line with the decriminalization of homosexual acts include its prevalence and possible failure to produce children leading to the downfall of the society.

Introduction: 'New recovery' can be conceptualised as both a social movement and a broader policy agenda to restructure treatment service systems towards 'recovery-oriented systems of care'. Emerging initially out of the United States, new recovery has gained currency as a policy agenda in other jurisdictions - perhaps most distinctly in the United Kingdom. In 2012, the ideas behind 'new recovery' were debated in the Australian alcohol and other drug field as the Victorian government sought to incorporate recovery principles into policy and service design. This paper uses the policy transfer and policy translation literature to understand how international policy ideas about 'new recovery' were negotiated in the Australian context, focusing specifically on the role of non-government actors in the process., Methods: This paper draws on an analysis of policy documents, organisational documents and interviews with representatives from the Australian non-government alcohol and other drug sector to consider how new recovery was translated into Victorian drug policy., Results: The interactions between organisations and actors - including bureaucrats, governmental agencies and policy entrepreneurs - facilitated the circulation and translation of policy ideas in the Victorian context. Despite this, the analysis suggests that policy transfer was largely a symbolic exercise: overall, some of the key features of new recovery policy from the United States and the United Kingdom, such as encouraging peer-led recovery and mutual aid, were not incorporated in the Victorian policy. NGOs resisted what they considered to be some of the more problematic elements of 'new recovery', and informed the local translation of the policy., Discussion: The results have implications for understandings of the relationship between social movements, non-government organisations and the state, as well as the dynamics of knowledge transfer in drug policy., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Contemporary research in the drugs field has demonstrated a number of gender differences in patterns and experiences of substance use, and the design and provision of gender-responsive interventions has been identified as an important policy issue. Consequently, whether and how domestic drug policies attend to women and gender issues is an important question for investigation. This article presents a policy audit and critical analysis of Australian national and state and territory policy documents. It identifies and discusses two key styles of problematisation of women's drug use in policy: 1) drug use and its effect on women's reproductive role (including a focus on pregnant women and women who are mothers), and 2) drug use and its relationship to women's vulnerability to harm (including violent and sexual victimisation, trauma, and mental health issues). Whilst these are important areas for policy to address, we argue that such representations of women who use drugs tend to reinforce particular understandings of women and drug use, while at the same time contributing to areas of 'policy silence' or neglect. In particular, the policy documents analysed are largely silent about the harm reduction needs of all women, as well as the needs of women who are not mothers, young women, older women, transwomen or other women deemed to be outside of dominant normative reproductive discourse. This analysis is important because understanding how women's drug use is problematised and identifying areas of policy silence provides a foundation for redressing gaps in policy, and for assessing the likely effectiveness of current and future policy approaches., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)