Drug charges in Queensland

Schedules, quantities and maximum penalties

Schedule 1 covers heroin, cocaine, methylamphetamine, MDMA, LSD and amphetamine. Schedule 2 covers cannabis, ketamine, anabolic steroids and a long list of others. The relevant quantities are set by the Drugs Misuse Regulation 1987 (Qld), and for methylamphetamine the pure weight matters as much as the gross weight.

Those maximums rarely reflect the sentence actually imposed. They matter because they determine which court can deal with the charge.

Possession is about control, not ownership

The prosecution must prove you had the drug in your possession, meaning custody or control, and that you knew it was there. Section 129(1)(c) of the Drugs Misuse Act reverses part of that: where a drug is found on a place you occupy or manage, you are deemed to have it in your possession unless you prove otherwise. That deeming provision does a lot of work in car and share house cases.

Supply is defined widely in section 4. It includes giving, distributing, selling, offering to supply, and doing or offering to do any act preparatory to supply. Passing a joint is a supply. So is agreeing over text to bring pills to a party, whether or not you ever do it.

Trafficking under section 5 requires a business, meaning repetition, an intention to profit, and some continuity. It is a Supreme Court charge and is usually proven from phone downloads rather than from any seizure.

Police drug diversion

Queensland has a legislated police drug diversion program under section 378A of the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 (Qld). Since 2024 it applies to all dangerous drugs, not just cannabis, and to possession of a utensil and small quantities of schedule 4 and 8 medicines.

1. First eligible offence: a drug diversion warning, issued on the spot with no court appearance.
2. Second: an initial drug diversion assessment program, a mandatory session with a health provider.
3. Third: a subsequent drug diversion assessment program.

You must be eligible. The quantity has to be under the prescribed limit, police must reasonably believe the drug was for personal use, there must be no related indictable offence, and you must not have previously been imprisoned for supply, trafficking or production. Completing a diversion means no charge, no court and no conviction. If police did not offer it and you were eligible, that is worth raising before your first mention.

Defences and mitigation that shift outcomes

• Knowledge. Where drugs are found in a shared car or house, the prosecution must connect them to you. Fingerprints, DNA, phone messages and who paid for what all matter.
• Quantity and purity. Certificates of analysis are regularly wrong about pure weight, which can move a charge across a schedule boundary and change the court.
• Drug dependence. Established dependence reduces the maximum for some charges and is genuine mitigation. A drug and alcohol treatment order can be available in the right case.
• Rehabilitation before sentence. Hair follicle testing, a completed program and a letter from a counsellor are worth more at sentence than any speech.