Harm Reduction Australia (HRA) is a national organisation for individuals across Australia to join together in their commitment to reducing the health, social and economic harms potentially associated with drug use. Making your voice heard is crucial if we are to achieve more humane, effective and balanced drug policies in Australia and beyond. To help join now and show your support.
The war on drugs has been hailed an abject failure. And a prime example as to why is that prohibition has resulted in a rise in the availability of illegal drugs, as well as increased levels of consumption. And without any quality control, no one has any idea of what they’re actually taking. […]
A NSW special commission of inquiry into crystal methamphetamine has recommended the decriminalisation of illicit drugs, the statewide expansion of injecting clinics, and drug testing facilities for users at fixed sites, under a dramatic overhaul of existing policies criticised for failing to stem addiction around Australia. As a fundamental first step, Commissioner Dan Howard SC also emphasised what a chorus of global experts have repeatedly recommended: that illicit drug use be recognised as a health and social problem, rather than a matter of criminal justice. […]
On Thursday the government released the four-volume report and its interim response a month after the inquiry’s findings were delivered by Commissioner Professor Dan Howard. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the government would not support the inquiry’s recommendations to open more medically supervised injecting centres, run needle and syringe programs in prisons, allow consumer substance testing (more commonly known as pill testing) and stop using drug detection dogs. […]
The state government has been left embarrassed after the professor hand-picked to solve the ice crisis landed ministers with a raft of suggestions they have already rejected. Opening up more injecting rooms, ditching drug detection dogs at music festivals, limiting strip searches, making ice pipes legal, and decriminalising the personal use of ice were among the controversial recommendations handed down on Thursday by ice inquiry head Professor Dan Howard. […]
