Australians can look at the US and see the sad legacy of the War on Drugs for what it is: Jails full of low level drug offenders, hospitals full of opioid addicts who’ve been revived with Narcan for the third time in a day, private addiction centres getting rich off human tragedy. […]

San Francisco will retroactively apply California’s marijuana-legalization laws to past criminal cases, District Attorney Gascón said Wednesday — expunging or reducing misdemeanor and felony convictions going back decades. The unprecedented move will affect thousands of people whose marijuana convictions brand them with criminal histories that can hurt chances of finding jobs and obtaining some government benefits. […]

Drug checking can then decrease harm on a larger scale by being an early warning system for healthcare professionals and disseminating the information broadly so it reaches more than just the individual who had their pill tested.” […]

Legislation introduced this month in both the Senate and Assembly would expand the legal uses of medical marijuana in New York to include opioid addiction treatment. […]

For those who argue that cannabis is a gateway drug, they’re right. It’s a gateway to finally treating people who use and misuse ALL drugs that are currently illegal with compassion. Because it is not just those who are terminally ill who need our compassion and understanding. […]

“Let the people have their say,” said medicinal cannabis patient Rebecca Reider. “The Government bill would force most cannabis patients to remain criminals. Patients are desperately hoping the Swarbrick bill will pass. If MPs have concerns they should let it get to select committee so those concerns can be answered.”   […]

“The people who are trying to access this medicine are not a bunch of hippies and stoners – they’re not doing it because they want to smoke weed, they’re doing it because they don’t want to be in pain. “And an extension of that, the people who will be cultivating it for them and preparing their oils and their ointments…

The time has come for Victorians to take a stand to prevent serious harm and death from illegal drugs and that’s exactly what Buninyong MP Geoff Howard is doing about pill-testing at events like music festivals. Mr Howard believes pill-testing at events like Rainbow will help prevent hospitalisation or even deaths of people who really don’t know what substances they are…

President of Harm Reduction Australia Gino Vumbaca said government and society should not be afraid of the evidence that shows the benefits of pill testing. “We are not condoning drug use, but we are living in the real world,” Vumbaca said. “The pragmatic view is that there will be people who do take drugs and we should minimise the risk that can…