Drug Offence Lawyers Sydney

Drug Offence Lawyers: What You Need to Know

Drug charges span an enormous range, from a personal possession matter that should never define a life, to commercial supply prosecutions carrying decades of potential imprisonment. What they share is this: the difference between outcomes turns on the quality of the defence, and the decisions made early shape everything.

Korn Tlais Defence Lawyers act across the full spectrum of drug matters in Sydney and New South Wales. Our case results include an acquittal on all eleven charges in a large commercial supply and manufacture trial, with the prosecution ordered to pay our client’s costs.

Drug Charges We Defend

Under the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW) and Commonwealth law, we act in:

• Possession

  Often defensible on questions of knowledge, custody and the lawfulness of the search. For eligible first-time matters, non-conviction outcomes and diversion options may be available.

• Supply, including deemed supply

  Possessing more than the traffickable quantity can be treated as supply even without evidence of any sale. Challenging deemed supply, and the inferences the prosecution asks a court to draw, is core work for this firm.

• Commercial and large commercial supply

  The most serious end of the scale, where quantity thresholds drive the charge and expert analysis of the evidence, surveillance and telephone material is decisive.

• Cultivation and manufacture

  From cannabis cultivation to alleged laboratory operations, these prosecutions turn on proof of knowledge and participation.

• Importation offences

  Commonwealth prosecutions with their own procedures, thresholds and sentencing principles.

• Drug premises and equipment offences

  Frequently charged alongside other matters and frequently open to challenge.

How Quantity Drives Everything

NSW law sets quantity thresholds for each substance, small, traffickable, indictable, commercial and large commercial, and the alleged quantity largely determines the charge, the court and the sentencing range. Where a quantity sits near a threshold, or where the weight attributed to our client is contestable, that contest can transform the entire matter.

Knowledge is the other battleground. The prosecution must prove our client knew of the drugs. Presence, proximity or access is not enough, and our case results include charges withdrawn precisely because that inference could not be sustained.

How We Defend Drug Matters

We test the search and the seizure first: whether the stop, the warrant or the search was lawful determines whether the evidence is even admissible. We then test continuity, analysis and quantity, and the inferences the prosecution needs a court to draw about knowledge and possession.

Where the evidence is strong, early and strategic engagement with the prosecution, negotiating charges, contesting facts and preparing sentence properly, routinely changes outcomes. Our case results across supply, manufacture and importation matters reflect both paths: fighting where a fight can be won, and negotiating from strength where it cannot.

Common Questions