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Unit of Study LAWS2060 - Drugs, Crime and the Law (2022)

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Unit Snapshot

Unit description

Considers the drug laws and their application in the legal system, with emphasis on legal, illegal and prescription drugs. Students will first look at the history of drug laws in Australia and compare these to developments internationally. Students will then study the current laws in terms of the principal offences of possession, cultivation/manufacture, self-administration, importation, prescription offences and supply. This provides the platform for analysis of the way the law is currently operating, and the options for change in the future. Relevant to those studying law, sports science, health science and welfare disciplines.

Unit content

Topic 1: What are drugs?
Topic 2: Why do people use drugs?
Topic 3: Strategies, policies and drug laws
Topic 4: Drug law options
Topic 5: Offences I — summary offences and drug premises
Topic 6: Offences II — indictable offences
Topic 7: Offences III — Commonwealth and miscellaneous offences
Topic 8: Investigation
Topic 9: Detention after arrest, police questioning, bail and diversionary schemes
Topic 10: The trial, intoxication as a defence, admissions, and charge negotiations
Topic 11: Sentencing and confiscation

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Online
Session3
Session3

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

evaluate the laws that variously regulate, restrict and prohibit drug use, their policy settings and implications, and demonstrating an ability to differentiate between legalisation, decriminalisation, regulation and prohibition

discuss and analyse the criminal procedure aspects of drug offences, including the theory and practice of police investigative powers, bail applications, admissibility of evidence, sentencing and confiscation of profits

apply knowledge of the law in topics covered by the unit to advise parties of their rights and liabilities in hypothetical problem and dispute situations

develop high levels of analytical skills in the reading of cases, statutes and legal documentation relating to drug law.

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.