Harm Reduction Australia

The research, commissioned by Redfern Legal Centre, has revealed there has been an almost 20-fold increase in the number of searches in the past 12 years. The study found between 2014-2015, and 2017-2018, searches in the field found nothing between 62.6 and 65.6 per cent of the time. […]

A strip search is the most invasive form of personal search available to police without a court order,” Dr Sentas says. “Yet over the past decade we have seen the number of strip searches continue to rise. Our findings reveal such searches are doing little to tackle serious drug crime.” […]

“Saturation policing with sniffer dogs at music festivals and railway stations or forcing teenagers to remove their clothes in the back of police vans does not make the community safer,” said one of the report’s co-authors, the UNSW lecturer Vicki Sentas. “We need a serious discussion about how best to reform the law so that the police cannot abuse their powers.” […]

We can’t possibly prevent all risk-taking harms but we can act to reduce the risk and minimise the harm. Just ‘saying no’ and believing that your kids, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and kids of your friends wouldn’t or don’t take drugs is nave and denies the reality of youth culture. […]