Rusiecki v Western Australia [2023] WASCA 81
A drug conviction was appealed on the basis methylamphetamine was not a ‘prohibited drug’ at the relevant time. Regulations referred to the list of drugs in Schedule 1 of the Poisons Standard14. Shortly before the offence took place, however, Schedule 1 was repealed and the list relocated to Schedule 2. The court held that the regulations had adopted the Poisons Standard as a ‘code’. It was inconsistent with the legislative scheme not to adopt the clearly identified listing provision of the Poisons Standard merely because it was not in Schedule 1. The court rejected a literal and mechanistic outcome in favour of one conforming to the legislative purpose15.
This principle is from Episode 97 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
14 reg 3(1) of the Medicines and Poisons Regulations 2016 (WA).
15 CIC Insurance 187 CLR 384 (at 408), Cooper Brookes 147 CLR 297 (at 320-321).