Drug & Alcohol Policy — News — Queensland Council for Civil Liberties

Expanding Adult Crime, Adult Time and Anti-Social Behaviour Amendment Bill 2026

While move on orders could theoretically promote community safety, the flaws outlined above mean that, in practice, they promote a mere sense of it. In fact, the manner in which they are often issued leads to further harm, disproportionately made against marginalised groups, cementing adversarial relationships with the police, promoting intolerance and, ultimately, failing to address underlying social issues that lead to unfavourable conduct

Tobacco Control Legislation

It is submitted that the entire scheme of Controlled Operations in the PPRA should be incorporated into the Bill for the same reasons that the Controlled Operations regime was originally incorporated into the PPRA.

SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil Liberties10 October 2025Drugs, Drug & Alcohol Policy

Notes for speech by Michael Cope to Community event on reinstating public drunkenness 22 June 2025

SpeechesQueensland Council for Civil Liberties22 June 2025Aboriginal/Indigenous, Drug & Alcohol Policy, police powers, police

LNP's hypocrisy on young people

Pill testing saves lives. David Crisafulli as the aspiring Premier-to-be should be taken to task in respect of his party’s double standards on knives wanding and pill testing” Mr O’Gorman said.

John Ransley Speech to 2016 QCCL AGM

Many if not all of the erosions of civil liberties over the last five decades were modelled in Nixon‟s War on Drugs, well before the sex offender and anti-terrorism laws: mandatory sentencing; reverse onus of proof; warrantless invasion of homes based on reasonable suspicion; proceeds of crime laws allowing confiscation without conviction; phone tapping laws; cash transaction laws; and „civilisation‟ of crime generally by replacing the criminal standard with the civil standard of proof

Statement to Committee on Draft Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2016

The major flaw in the Bill is supply. The Victorian Law Reform Commission report on medicinal cannabis identified this as a key problem and recommended that Victoria organise its own cannabis industry, from cultivation to prescription. This recommendation was incorporated into the Victorian legislation. It is very hard to see how the Qld Bill can work without addressing this issue.

Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2016

In our submission, the process contemplated under this legislation is extremely bureaucratic and process driven. The focus of the legislation should be the treatment of ill people. In California, you can see a doctor and walk out of the pharmacy the same day with a prescription. Why can we not have that system in this country?

Submission in relation to the Government's Safe Night Out Strategy

The QCCL does not take the view that there is a human right to access alcohol. We note in this regard the discussion of this issue by McMurdo P. and Justice Keane in Aurukun Shire Council and Anor –v- CEO Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing [2010] QCA 37 at paragraphs 43 and 142 to 145. McMurdo P. returned to the issue in the decision of Morton –v- Queensland Police Service [2010] QCA 160.[1]

SubmissionSiegfried Clarke17 April 2014Human Rights, Drug & Alcohol Policy, Police

Does Brisbane Need A Medically Supervised Injecting Centre?

Dr Alex Wodak, Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, said that it is now clear that 'Medically Supervised Injecting Centres (MSICs) provide great benefit to drug users and communities at relatively little cost'.

Prohibition Doesn’t Work, It Never Has and Never Will

Why do people use drugs? The question should be amplified and rephrased: what makes some young people use drugs that are officially declared dangerous and illegal in contrast to the majority who drink and smoke socially approved substances? The most obvious and natural answer is because they like them. We do not generally look for obscure, psychological or sociological explanations of most drug use in the community. People take alcohol, smoke tobacco, drink tea and coffee because they enjoy the effects of these substances

Random Roadside Drug Testing Legislation Opposed

Mr. Cope says, “The problem the government has is that so far science has been unable to establish a clear relationship between the amount of a drug in your system and your ability to drive. It is quite a different situation with alcohol where there is a clear correlation between the level of alcohol in your bloodstream and your capacity to drive. The government then is forced to introduce this draconian legislation.”

Queensland Opposition Planning to Follow ‘Mindless Mandatory Sentencing Track'

The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties (QCCL) today accused the Queensland Opposition of planning to go down the same mindless mandatory sentencing track as the Northern Territory and Western Australia.