Australia or Afganisatan?
- Thread starter Asguard
- Start date
Bells
Staff member
I believe it is also illegal to import illegal drugs into the country in other states of Australia.
Emphasis added.
Are you suggesting that other States in Australia allow people to illegally import drugs from overseas? Does the same apply in other countries in the world?
The abortion laws in Queensland are sloppy, no one is denying that. They are left open to too much interpretation. Here is a brief breakdown of the laws that exist in Queensland and their brief history:
Medical abortions happen all the time in Queensland. When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, my GP clearly and concisely stated the choices available to me, one of which included a termination. In other words, you're not going to get arrested if you get an abortion. You will, however, be arrested if you illegally import abortion drugs from Russia and take them at home to bring about an abortion. I think that distinction needs to be made.
At present, the Queensland Government is in the process of clarifying the existing laws. The result has been death threats on the children of the Premier.
But that still does not take away the fact that people cannot import drugs into the country to bring about abortions.
bells, whats the penelty in any state for importing a drug? Any drug (not a prohibided substance of course) because as far as i know (and you could be right) the only penelty which would aplie in any other state would be the same as importing an antibotic rather than buying one through a pharmacy.
Bells
Staff member
Federal laws give a 10 year maximum sentence.
You need to realise something. Queensland was the first state in the country that legally allowed a doctor to prescribe RU486.
The result of this couple's arrest and the DPP's decision to charge her with a little used law that existed in our criminal code (because she decided to do it herself with the drug her boyfriend had his sister send him from Russia, when she could have just gone to her doctor for a prescription or referral for a prescription) has resulted in Queensland doctors no longer prescribing it, until the Government redefines section 226 of our Criminal Code. It has been a hell of a long time before anyone was charged under this section of the law in Queensland. Doctors were prescribing drugs that had an abortificant affect and yes, some were performing abortions. Yet no one had been arrested for it.
This couple's actions were idiotic in the extreme. Why in the hell would you get someone to send you a drug you can get from a doctor?
The only good thing about it is that the Queensland Government is now looking at modernising the State's abortion laws.
The Premier, Anna Bligh, has said that her government will not introduce legislation to decriminalise abortion because she thinks that such legislation would not pass and that whatever legislation was passed could result in stricter restrictions on abortions rather than a liberalising of the law. (She personally supports the legalisation of abortion.)
She has said that the only way for such legislation to be introduced would be via a private member's bill.
Bells
Staff member
You're right. But abortions are still available in Queensland. Doctors were prescribing pills to induce periods long before RU486 and they also performed abortions.
No one, since the 80's, has been chaged under section 226 of the Criminal Code for performing an abortion (medically). That should tell you something. Because of what this couple has done, doctors are now becoming hesitant, because of the fear that they could be arrested, when such a fear did not exist before.
There is a dire need for the legislation to be overhauled and yes, she has said she can't/won't over turn the law. But the discussions at the moment are centering around how doctors can be protected.
It's one of those things in Queensland that everyone knows you can get an abortion if you need or want one and in the past, the police and the DPP had always turned a blind eye to it. People have been charged for attacking or beating pregnant women. But medical abortions? The police knows it happens, as do the DPP, and doctors had not been arrested, nor women seeking a termination.
..they should have never admitted to it. Since they can't prove what substances were included in those sachets, every other argument about "illegal import of drugs, etc" would have been moot if only they would have never ..admitted to it. :shrug:
Speaking of Aussies illegally importing drugs for banned medical procedures, I read an interesting article in the SD Reader recently about Australian suicide tourism to San Diego/Tijuana. It's rather easy to get any pharmaceutical one wants in Tijuana, including the suicide drug of choice (which is apparently sold at veterenary outlets in TJ). And so there's a regular traffic of elderly and invalid visitors - largely from Australia, for some reason - that fly into San Diego, spend a couple of days on the beach, and then take a day trip to TJ to obtain suicide drugs. They then return to San Diego and fly back home with their drugs, hoping not to get caught along the way. There are apparently entire web sites detailing which drugs to get, where to get them, legal issues related to the whole process, advice on travel, etc.
Fairly crazy stuff...