EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CUSTOMS ACT 1901
CUSTOMS (NARCOTIC SUBSTANCES) REGULATIONS
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO. 380
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR INDUSTRY, TECHNOLOGY AND COMMERCE
Section 270 of the Customs Act 1901 (“the Act”) provides in part that “The Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with this Act prescribing all matters which by this Act are required or permitted to be prescribed or as may be necessary or convenient to be prescribed for giving effect to this Act ...”
Subsection 4(1) of the Act provides that “Narcotic substance” means a substance or thing the name of which is specified in column 1 of Schedule VI or any other substance or thing for the time being declared by the regulations to be a narcotic substance’.
The Schedule to the Customs (Narcotic Substances) Regulations specifies substances which, in conjunction with subsection 4(1) of the Act, are declared to be “narcotic substances”, thereby attracting the sanction of imprisonment under the Act.
Certain drugs such as “Ecstasy” (3,4-Methylenedioxymetamphetamine) are prescribed in the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations but are not prescribed as a ‘narcotic substance’ under the Act. This has the unintended consequence that importers of such drugs may be made the subject of a pecuniary penalty (of a maximum amount of $50,000) but may not be prosecuted for a criminal offence, with the sanction of imprisonment as would be the case if those drugs were ‘narcotic substances’ under the Act. The Statutory Rules (regulations 3 and 5) repeal the previous Schedule and substitute a new Schedule to the Customs (Narcotic Substances) Regulations to include certain drugs not previously covered, to correct the above anomaly.
In addition to the above amendment regulations 2 and 4 prescribe commercial and trafficable quantities respectively for the narcotic substances whose names are specified in the Schedule, because a different level of penalty applies depending upon the amount of a narcotic substance imported illegally.