Western Australian Current Acts

MISUSE OF DRUGS ACT 1981 - SECT 26

26 .         Powers of police officers and others when things suspected of being used in commission of offences found, received or acquired

        (1)         If there are reasonable grounds to suspect that any thing found or received during the exercise of the powers conferred by section 22 or 23 or by a search warrant or under any other circumstances is a thing referred to in section 23(1)(a), (b) or (c) a police officer or approved person, as the case requires —

            (a)         in the case of —

                  (i)         a thing that is a prohibited drug, prohibited plant or dangerous substance; or

                  (ii)         a thing that is contaminated by a dangerous substance,

                may seize and detain the thing until it is dealt with under section 27; or

            (b)         in the case of any other thing, may seize it.

        (2A)         If under subsection (1)(b) a thing may be seized, the Criminal Investigation Act 2006 Part 13, with any necessary changes, applies to and in relation to the exercise of the power to seize the thing.

        (2B)         If under subsection (1)(b) a thing is seized, the Criminal Investigation Act 2006 Part 13 and the Criminal and Found Property Disposal Act 2006 , with any necessary changes, apply to and in relation to it.

        (2)         A police officer who —

            (a)         while he or she is an undercover officer acting in the course of an undercover operation, acquires a prohibited drug or prohibited plant; or

            (b)         acquires a prohibited drug or prohibited plant as a result of its delivery to him by an undercover officer who is not a police officer,

                shall detain the prohibited drug or prohibited plant until it is dealt with under section 27.

        [Section 26 amended: No. 50 of 1990 s. 7; No. 44 of 1995 s. 6; No. 44 of 2010 s. 6; No. 55 of 2012 s. 119.]