Drugs
Exclusive
Crime
‘Stronger than fentanyl’: The surge in seizures of a deadly new synthetic opioid
Australian authorities are intercepting more shipments of super-potent nitazenes, and medical professionals fear it could lead to a wave of overdoses.
- by Marta Pascual Juanola
Latest
Exclusive
Domestic violence
Carly was looking for help. Instead, she found the man who killed her
Carly McBride vanished just before a letter landed on her mother’s doorstep. Had it arrived earlier it could have saved her daughter’s life.
- by Perry Duffin
Editorial
Opinion
Safe injecting room decision fails city and many of its most vulnerable
The premier’s consensus-building approach may serve her short-term political interests, but it will have a disastrous effect on those living on society’s margins.
- The Age's View
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.
- by Sophie Aubrey and Cara Waters
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.
- by Jon Pierik, Carla Jaeger and Michael Gleeson
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.
- by Nick McKenzie
Letters
Letters
I was at Arj Barker’s show – here’s what really happened
Readers on the comedy show where a mother and baby were kicked out, and the decision by Jacinta Allan to reject a CBD safe-injecting room.
‘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.
- by Jewel Topsfield
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.
- by Kieran Rooney
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.
- by Rachel Eddie, Kieran Rooney and Cara Waters
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.
- by Cloe Read