Australian border authorities confiscated nearly 900 kilos of ketamine last year, setting a new national record for seizures of the psychedelic drug. The spike in seizures of ketamine is concerning to Australian officials, who worry that organized crime groups are now focusing on illicit sales of the powerful drug.

The 882 kilograms of ketamine seized last year is more than double the 415 kilos seized in 2022, according to a report from 9 News. Officials say that the majority of the ketamine seized by the Australian Border Force (ABF) was imported into the country by sea. 

Testing of wastewater in Australia has revealed a new high for levels of ketamine, confirming that the psychedelic drug has become increasingly popular with the nation’s residents. Ketamine use reached a record high in April 2023, according to the latest ACIC National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program report.

Authorities discovered 84 kilos of ketamine hidden inside the panels of two brand-new delivery vans on a ship bound for Sydney last summer. After receiving a tip about the illicit shipment, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) boarded the ship in Melbourne to inspect the cargo. Officials found a total of 79 bags of ketamine hidden in the vans. After seizing the illegal shipment, they replaced the bags with dummy packets before the vessel continued its route to Sydney. Police then apprehended the recipients of the dummy bags outside Sydney and arrested three men who were charged with importing a commercial quantity of controlled drugs.

“These criminal groups may think they’re being clever in the way they try to bring in these harmful substances, but they should know that the ABF is ready to respond,” ABF Assistant Commissioner James Watson said in a statement to Australian media.

Largest Ketamine Bust Ever Made Last Year

AFP agents made the largest ketamine bust in Australian history in July 2023 when they found 80 kilos of the drug in an ocean-going cement shipment from Spain. The bust was made after a tip from Spanish authorities and led to the discovery of 80 kilos of ketamine that had been buried at a residence. Another 14 kilos of the drug was found at a nearby storage facility and three men were arrested and face charges in the record bust.

The largest amounts of ketamine were confiscated from ocean-going shipments of the drug. Additionally, officials seized smaller quantities of the drug from travelers to the country. According to media reports, ABF agents routinely find smaller amounts of ketamine in passenger luggage and arrest travelers suspected of importing the drugs.

In October 2023, a Taiwanese national was arrested at Brisbane International Airport after border officials discovered 250 grams of ketamine in his luggage. Last week, an 18-year-old UK national was arrested when he arrived in Sydney and border officials discovered 20 kilos of ketamine in his luggage. The man was charged with importing commercial quantities of a controlled drug and has been denied bail in the case.

Although ketamine busts in Australia rose to record levels last year, officials note that seizures of the psychedelic are much lower than other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, according to AFP intelligence. As ketamine busts increase, officials are warning Australians about the risks associated with taking the drug.

“Ketamine is a dangerous and illicit sedative. Its dissociative effects block sensory brain signals and can cause memory loss, feelings of being detached from one’s body and prevent their ability to perceive danger,” AFP Detective-Superintendent Anthony Hall said in a statement cited by The Maritime Executive. “Unfortunately, in Australia, an average of 40 people are admitted to hospitals every week as a result of experiencing the harm caused by drug use.”

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Sometimes, you have to take it to the streets, literally. At least that’s the approach Australian cannabis activists Will Stolk and Alec Zammitt take when trying to generate awareness around the flaws in Australia’s current weed regulations.

Stolk and Zammitt have been helping make cannabis a hot topic of discussion in Australia for the past eight years, rolling out annual 420 “Who Are We Hurting?” demonstrations that have captivated the ears and eyes of the Australian public. At the very least, Stolk and Zammitt aim to share a laugh and start a conversation with people about cannabis legislation reform, but activism is not without its hurdles.

As previously reported by High Times, both men are currently on bail for organizing a pot publicity stunt where they projected cannabis imagery onto the iconic Sydney Opera House on 4/20 in 2022. As of the writing of this piece, Stolk and Zammitt are scheduled to return to court on either the 4th or 5th of January 2024 to face charges—all for trying to help people not feel like outsiders and not feel objectified because they consume cannabis.

Stolk and Zammitt left no trace of their light show on the Opera House, did not disgrace its exterior with graffiti, nor was the property damaged in any way. Technically, they were never on the premises.

“We’re facing criminal charges for doing something that obviously is of mischief, but when we did the opera house stunt, we left no impact on it,” Stolk said over a video call. “We just want to be able to go down to the shop and buy cannabis, just like you can in California.”

Activism Meets Guerrilla Marketing

Since their first 420 stunt—where they donned a giant bong costume and attached a sign reading “Happy birthday, weed” to a bunch of balloons like in the movie Up—Stolk and Zammitt’s passion for activism was really to humor themselves. It just so happened that others well received their work, and suddenly, the “Who Are We Hurting?” movement was born.

Before their serendipitous meeting, Stolk was a professional skier and Zammitt was well-versed in guerrilla marketing, PR, and publicity stunts for corporate clients.

After an arrest in Utah for two grams of pot on a ski trip derailed his ski career for about six months, Stolk was pissed off and wanted to do something about it. Zammitt—who was also a cannabis consumer—wanted to change the negative stigmas around weed in Australia, and the two joined forces to jumpstart the conversation on cannabis reform and to educate people.

“There’s definitely a lot of knowledgeable Australians who can speak on the topic better than we can, but they might not necessarily be able to get in front of the right people or have the clickbait,” Zammitt said. “That’s what we’re trying to pair together—the people who can speak well on the topic and the platform that helps them give that message.

“We just supply what we know, and we encourage other consumers to do the same. If everyone was vocal about it, we’d be a lot further ahead of the stigma around cannabis.”

And according to Stolk, slowly but surely, the culture is changing.

“In 2016, when medical weed legalization was passed, it led to massive change, and two years ago in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), they decriminalized cannabis,” he said. “You’re allowed to grow your own weed and you’re allowed to smoke it, but you’re not allowed to sell it.”

The legislation puts Australian weed smokers in quite a predicament: While they can consume their own herb, they have no legal way of purchasing it.

“In Canberra, where Will’s talking about, you can grow your own, but it’s still federally illegal to import seeds and trade for them, so the plants would have to magically appear in your backyard,” Zammitt said with a laugh. “You’re also not allowed to use artificial heat or lighting sources, so if you don’t have a backyard, live in apartments, or security is an issue for you, you won’t be able to take advantage of the decriminalization.”

And that’s why “Who Are We Hurting?” does what it does. They’ve teamed up with politicians and different activists who can help enact change, or at least influence the people who can make the changes, such as the Australian political party Legalise Cannabis Australia.

“They’ve got four members of parliament elected across three different states in Australia,” Zammitt said. “People are voting for the change, and other politicians are starting to realize they’re asleep at the wheel.”

One of the main legislative problems “Who Are We Hurting?” is currently trying to fix is the unfair targeting of medicinal cannabis patients on the roadways.

“Currently, it’s the only prescribed medicine that you’re not allowed to have present in your system while driving,” Zammitt said. “We’re proposing an allowable defense so you can have it present in your system as long as you’re not driving whilst impaired.”

According to Stolk, even if you’re a medicinal cannabis patient, if you’re caught with any traces of cannabis in your system, you automatically lose your driver’s license for three months, regardless of impairment.

This means that even if you have a legal medical cannabis prescription, there’s a chance you could be unfairly cited while on the road.

“During my time over the past decade doing these stunts, the police have set up a specific task force to target activists who are doing what Will and I do, as well as what the climate protesters are doing,” Zammitt said. “They specifically targeted my car, kept pulling me over, kept searching the car and drug testing me.”

Zammitt kept coming up negative, but on two occasions three weeks apart, he returned two positive tests. He ended up going to court for those matters and, at the time, owned a private security company. Because of the roadside positive test, his license to employ security guards was revoked, causing him to close the company instantly.

“I wasn’t allowed to profit from anything industry-related,” Zammitt said. “It was iffy as to if I would even be legally allowed to sell the company I owned.”

But once he went to court, his driver’s license remained intact.

“They allowed me to keep driving on the roads, so I feel the police task force was trying to target some of my financial income to try and hinder the activism we’re doing,” Zammitt said. 

“Obviously, they were targeting me, and they specifically went about it in that way to take my company off me, but there’ve been plenty of other people who have had consequences similar to mine just because they’ve been driving with their medication present in their system.”

This could mean that weed might still show in one’s system two weeks after initial consumption—depending on one’s metabolism. Thus, the work of “Who Are We Hurting?” aims to fix these holes at the highest levels of government and help people not live in fear of criminal prosecution for weed consumption.

Haters may ask, “Why publicity stunts? Why not print pamphlets and canvass around?”

“We do the stunts because we do what we know,” Zammitt said. “Rather than handing a pamphlet to one person who walks by who will probably throw it away, we would rather put a bit of effort into a stunt that could reach national or global news and get us in conversation with organizations like High Times Magazine and other mainstream media outlets.”

“Who Are We Hurting?” wants to push the doctors, scientists, and politicians to comment on legalization and do cross-over interviews with them to convert the nonbelievers and reverse the stigma.

“We do what we do to make the most amount of impact possible,” Stolk said. “When we do these stunts, we try to get people to talk about the elephant in the room, which is obviously ‘Who are we hurting?’ and the impact of these draconian drug laws.”

For Stolk and Zammitt, stunts make it possible to do something highly visible to push their message in ways that do not negatively impact the public.

“We don’t want to be going out there blocking major highways saying, ‘We want to make cannabis legal,’ because even people who smoke might be stuck in that traffic trying to get to work or trying to get their kids to school,” Zammitt said.

In other words, Stolk and Zammitt aim to be disruptive, but not in a way that pisses people off.

“We want people to resonate with our cause, but we don’t want to cause any conflict in society,” Stolk said. “I think the majority of people would agree that cannabis is safer than cigarettes or alcohol, can be used in both a medical and recreational way, and if we’re not driving impaired, we’re not really hurting anybody.”

Zammitt echoed similar sentiments.

“We’re not against the police, either,” he said. “There are a lot of police on our side and a lot of police who have family members in Australia who are prescribed medicinal cannabis. I feel like it’s just a few politicians and corporate folks who are pissed off and don’t want to see these changes go through. But we’ll play their game, we’ll keep lobbying, we’ll keep stirring the pot and I think we’ll see a lot of change moving forward.”

Follow @willysworld69, @crazek, and check out crazeco.com.au for more information.

This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.

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According to a new study, New York City consumes more cannabis out of any city in the world, at 62.3 metric tons (approximately 137,000 pounds) per year. The study, compiled as the “2023 Cannabis Global Price Index,” was conducted by health information resource CFAH, which collected data on cannabis prices from 140 cities worldwide.

In addition to exploring the highest cannabis-consuming cities in the world, the research explored the cities with the most and least expensive cannabis and the price trajectory for cannabis in the U.S.

Which Cities Consume the Most Cannabis?

CFAH examined the top and bottom cannabis-consuming nations in order to hone in on the study cities, noting the legal status of cannabis in each region. Researchers then chose the final list of 140 cities to display the “best comparison of the global cannabis price.” Prices per gram were obtained through crowdsourced, city-level polls adjusted to the PriceOfWeed dashboard and UNODC World Drug Report.

To track total consumption, CFAH used figures collected from the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.S. price trajectory figures were calculated through Seasonal AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA), a model used to account for patterns in data.

New York City has a pretty major lead on other cities when it comes to cannabis consumption. Sydney, Australia ranked second, despite the illegal status of cannabis in the country, at 45.8 metric tons per year, about 17 metric tons less than the Big Apple. Los Angeles ranked third, at 35 metric tons per year, followed by Chicago at 24.9 metric tons and Rome, Italy at 21.9 metric tons per year.

The list ranks the top 20 cities. From sixth to 20th, it includes (in order): Houston, Texas; Toronto, Canada; Tokyo, Japan; Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna, Austria; Hamburg, Germany; Phoenix, Arizona; Montreal, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Vancouver, Canada; Uskudar, Turkey; Dublin, Ireland; Denver, Colorado and Annapolis, Canada.

Which Cities Have the Most and Least Expensive Cannabis?

Cannabis is illegal and highly criminalized in Japan, but for people looking to toke up anyway, they’ll have to pay a pretty penny. Tokyo ranked as the city with the most expensive cannabis, at $33.8 per gram. Dublin, Ireland and Tallinn, Estonia followed at $22.50 and $22.10 per gram, respectively. 

Montreal, Canada had the least expensive cannabis according to the study, at just $5.90 per gram. Bangalore, India and Notre Dame, Canada followed, at $6 and $6.20 per gram, respectively.

While it’s a common assumption that legality may mean wider availability, ultimately leading to lower prices, both the most and least expensive cannabis cities were well-balanced when it came to legal or illegal status. The top 10 most expensive cannabis cities include six cities where cannabis is illegal and four where it’s legal. The least expensive cannabis cities vary only slightly, with six cities where cannabis is legal and four where it’s illegal.

Forecasting Future Cannabis Prices in the U.S.

Researchers used SARIMA to project future trends for cannabis prices in the U.S. The time-series forecasting model takes both the trend and seasonality of the data into account — “It combines the autoregressive, integrated, and moving average models with seasonal components to capture the trend, seasonality, and random fluctuations in a time series,” according to the study.

Looking at a CFAH graph of prices over the past 30 years, namely the erratic zigzagging through the decades, it may feel like a shot in the dark to truly predict the price of cannabis in the future. Still, CFAH predicts that the price of cannabis per gram in America could fall to an average of $5.61 per gram by 2030.

Given the trends of several legal cannabis states in the U.S. as of late, it’s perhaps not surprising to expect a continued price drop, especially as the market continues to grow and with the potential of federal legalization to come. 

Regarding New York’s status as the heaviest cannabis consuming state across the globe? Odds are that the city will maintain the title, especially as the recreational market continues to get off the ground. 

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A group of Australian cannabis activists took to the streets of Sydney in a motorcade of military vehicles to protest the failed War on Drugs and policies that punish drivers who are found to have THC in their system. Known collectively as the Who Are We Hurting? Army, the group of activists staged their protest on 4/20, the global cannabis community’s high holiday. The contingent of military vehicles including a tank traveled by the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, two well-known landmarks in the Australian city that served as the backdrop for a protest on April 20, 2022, that featured cannabis imagery projected on the iconic structures. 

The organizers of last year’s 4/20 protest, Alec Zammitt and Will Stolk, have been criminally charged for their actions under a law that bans the projection of commercial images on the Sydney Opera House. The pair are on bail pending prosecution for their actions, which they maintain are a constitutionally protected protest of cannabis prohibition in Australia.

For this year’s demonstration, the group of activists secured a fleet of armored military vehicles to travel throughout Sydney to deliver facts about cannabis directly to Australian news outlets. The protest also aimed to highlight the failures of the cannabis policy in the Australian state of New South Wales, which penalizes drivers who are found to have THC in their system. Under the law, drivers found to have THC in their system are subject to criminal penalties including license suspension or revocation, stiff fines and imprisonment. Zammitt said that the military-style action was designed to highlight the harmful policies of the failed War on Drugs.

“This visual statement aims to highlight the need for a new approach to drug-driving policy, one that prioritizes harm reduction and treatment over punishment and incarceration,” Zammitt said in a statement to the press. 

The activists note that a 2019 study by Sydney University’s Lambert Initiative, a research program investigating the medical potential of cannabis, found that while drivers under the influence of high-potency THC products exhibited more lane weaving, other measures showed that intoxicated drivers were somewhat safer. Intoxicated drivers tended “to leave a larger gap between them and the car in front” and showed “no tendency to speed,” according to the research.

“Driving with THC, shouldn’t make you an enemy,” Zammitt added. “Driving laws need change. Cannabis patients deserve equal range.”

The protest was also designed to educate the public about the benefits of cannabis legalization, including enhanced personal freedom and the potential for new sources of revenue for public services that could come with regulating and taxing commercial cannabis production and sales.

“We want to publicize the discussion around cannabis in Australia and ask the government, who would be hurt by an amnesty?” said fellow cannabis activist Stolk. “We also want to educate the Australian taxpayer on the benefits of fully legalizing cannabis in Australia. There is a huge amount of money that will flow into the coffers of the Australian government, for use in healthcare, schools, and roads, from the tax excise that will be taken from legalized cannabis.”

“We also want to highlight the fact that the 75-plus year war on drugs hasn’t worked and has cost the taxpayer billions of dollars fighting a war that cannot and will not ever be won,” Stolk continued.

The cannabis policy reform movement in Australia got a new boost recently when the Legalise Cannabis NSW party elected Jeremy Buckingham as its first member of Parliament. Buckingham, a former Green Party member, said that he will spend much of his time in office advocating for the legalization of cannabis and related policy reforms.

“I am honored to have been elected as the first MP for the Legalise Cannabis NSW party,” he said in a statement. “I am committed to advancing the cause of drug law reform and working towards a more just and equitable society. I look forward to working with my colleagues in parliament and with the broader community to make this vision a reality.” 

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Two activists in Australia are facing criminal charges for projecting pro-cannabis messages on the Sydney Opera House, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. The activists, Alec Zammitt and Will Stolk, projected a dancing pot leaf and other images on the famed venue on April 20, 2022, timing their protest against the continued prohibition of marijuana in Australia to coincide with the cannabis community’s 4/20 high holiday.

A month before the 4/20 demonstration, Zammitt had conducted a trial run of the protest in which he projected images for a short time onto the Sydney Opera House from the Park Hyatt Hotel, a location with sweeping views of the iconic landmark and nearby Sydney Harbour Bridge. The images, which left no permanent mark on the structure, included cannabis leaves and the numeral 420, among others, and the phrase “Who are we hurting?” a primary theme of the activists’ protest.

Zammitt was contacted by police detectives, who visited his home the following day to conduct an interview. Before concluding the interview, the detectives told him that they were not sure if what he had done was an offense and said they would seek internal legal advice and contact him after a day’s time. When that didn’t happen, the activists believed they were in the clear and planned their next demonstration for 4/20. 

4/20 Demonstration Interrupted By Police

After returning to the Park Hyatt Hotel early on the morning of April 20, Zammitt and Stolk, who freely admit their actions, used laser projectors to again project the pro-cannabis imagery onto the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Before long, however, the protest was shut down by the authorities.

“The police ended up raiding the hotel suite where the projectors were set up. They issued me with an offense relating to the month prior as well as a new offense for the 4/20 projections,” Zammitt wrote in an email to High Times. “They also charged Will with the same offense under section 9 G of the Opera House Trust By-Laws.”

Zammitt went on to explain that the offense relates to “Distribution of advertisement etc. on Opera House Premises,” noting that there is similar legislation relating to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, on which the activists also projected pro-cannabis messages. So far, police have chosen not to pursue charges in relation to that part of the demonstration, however.

Stolk and Zammitt are fighting the charges against them, arguing that their actions did not constitute a commercial advertisement but were instead a constitutionally protected protest of Australia’s prohibition of cannabis and a message of support for reform legislation being debated in the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament. 

After being informed by the activists’ legal counsel that they would bring constitutional challenges to the charges against them, prosecutors changed their approach and agreed that rather than a commercial advertisement, Zammitt and Stolk’s actions were a political protest. However, they are continuing the proceedings and requiring the pair to present their constitutional defense in court.

Activists Appear In Court Next Week

On January 31, Stolk and Zammitt face a hearing in the case, where the NSW attorney general’s office will indicate if it will oppose the activists’ defense based on political expression or communication. If the attorney general opposes the defense, the matter will be set for a constitutional hearing.

If the case goes to trial and the activists are convicted of the charges against them, Stolk faces a fine of up to $1,100, while Zammitt’s penalty could be twice that due to the second charge for the trial run. Zammitt hopes the court proceedings bring attention to the continued prohibition of cannabis in Australia and amplify their “Who are we hurting?” message. He added that he has retained an attorney renowned for his work with constitutional defenses related to political expression and expects prosecutors to drop the charges before the case goes to the Australian High Court.

Stolk said he is tempted to pay the fine and be finished with the matter, but the case’s constitutional implications and his desire to continue spreading a pro-cannabis message keep him in the fight.

“We did this for a reason, and the reason was to firmly express our opinion and political belief that we should legally be allowed to consume and sell recreational cannabis just like we do alcohol and just like our brothers and sisters get to do in numerous legal states in the USA, in countries like Canada, Holland and Thailand, and soon even Germany,” Stolk wrote in an email. “We believe that the current Australian laws are stuck in the 1800s and we believe that it’s our constitutional right to be able to protest and express our political opinions.”

He also notes that the basis of the protest is the desire of many Australians to be able to smoke a joint without fear of reprisal from the government. He adds that it is a matter of personal freedom, something his grandfather fought for in World War 2, spending five years in a Nazi POW camp.

“I personally feel that if we give these corrupt politicians an inch they will take a mile,” Stolk asserts. “So as we are now in the position to take one for the team and stand up for our constitutional rights I think that no matter what the outcome it’s our duty as Australians to defend our freedoms that our ancestors fought so hard to protect.” 

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