Some legal consequences of drug use
Having a criminal record
Criminal convictions are recorded for some offences and these records may exist forever. This can affect your life in many ways:
Career
Certain areas of work can be closed to someone with a criminal record. For example, suppose you want to be a dentist, doctor, engineer, architect, lawyer, or teacher. You have to register with a professional association when your academic training is finished, and that association can refuse to accept you because of your criminal record.
Employment
Some employers will check if you have a criminal record. You may not be able to get a job in the armed or police services, in security or public services, or in business or industry, if you have a conviction. If you are convicted while you are employed, you could be sacked.
Licences
Having a criminal record can prevent you getting many sorts of licences; for example, licences for driving a taxi, running a liquor store or pub, or owning a gun.
Travel
Any person is entitled to have a passport, but many countries (like the USA) require that people travelling there get a visa. These countries can refuse to give you a visa if you have a criminal record.
Social status
Many individuals and groups of people in Australia discriminate against someone with a criminal record. A criminal record can affect your standing in the community, the attitudes of your workmates and your relationships with your family and friends.
Some legal consequences of drug use
Related behavior
Most psychoactive drugs change a person’s mood or behaviour. Sometimes these changes are negative or harmful, both to you and to other people. Behaviour caused by drug use can also get you into trouble with the law.
Intoxication
While in some States, such as New South Wales, it is no longer an offence to be drunk in a public place, it is still an offence in Queensland.
Violence
Long term or excessive use of alcohol or other drugs can affect your relationships with other people. Domestic violence can follow alcohol and drug use and damages relationships between partners, and parents and children. Injuring other people is a criminal offence. You can’t excuse it or defend it just because it happens inside a family. Alcohol or drug use can make you feel aggressive and cause fights with others. If you fight in a public place, this is also an offence.
Crime
There seems to be a relationship between using some drugs and committing crimes. For example:
Alcohol is associated with serious assaults, drinking driving, street disturbances, domestic violence and a range of other offences.
Someone who regularly uses a drug like heroin needs a lot of money to pay for it. Sometimes people turn to committing crimes like supplying illicit drugs to others, theft, burglary or armed robbery, or by turning to prostitution to obtain money for drugs. |
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