The Law and Politics of Drug Sentencing in Australia

Abstract

Australia's Courts take their role in dealing with illicit drug activity very seriously. They extol regularly and publicly the virtues of deterrent sentences in curbing drug trafficking and prison sentences of several years are not uncommon. Despite the shared aim of eliminating illegal drug activity Courts in different Australian States impose remarkably disparate sentences and adopt their own approach in sentencing drug offenders. Some States have made considerable efforts to refine the principles employed to determine appropriate sentences for drug offenders and to recognise the complexities of drugs and drug activity, but others have been content to rest on the deterrent element of sentences at the expense of a more sophisticated approach. Nonetheless, the sentencing of drug offenders in Australia has developed in a particular pattern which will be explored in this paper with particular reference to the political response.