report

This monograph – by leading Victorian expert in sentencing law Professor Arie Freiberg – examines the 170-year history of drug sentencing reform in Victoria. Despite the long and complex history of drug criminalisation, this is the first document to examine these issues in the Victorian context. From the fines, bonds and imprisonment of the early colony, through multiple Inebriates Acts, and the development of community-based orders, Professor Freiberg highlights the tensions that arise from attempts to control drinking and drug use via the criminal law. Professor Freiberg offers a sobering history of drug sentencing law reform and highlights the lessons that ideally should be learnt from these successive failures.