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Music festivals told by health officials to offer drug testing so users can assess the strength of illegal narcotics
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said testing facilities should be ‘standard’ at festivals so revellers can assess the strength and content of the drugs they are considering taking. Drug safety testing pilots at the Secret Garden Party and Kendall Calling festivals last summer, with the support of local police and public health officials, reduced the amount of potentially harmful…
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Australia Is Lagging Behind On Safe Injecting Rooms And It’s Killing People
No one in the field is claiming that MSICs will solve the state’s drug problem — the coroner’s report explicitly said they were not the “silver bullet” — but when displayed alongside the state’s other harm minimisation policies centred on drug use, it would seem surely seem like a natural step? […]
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Uruguay, the first country where you can smoke marijuana wherever you like
“South America’s war against drugs has been absurd, with catastrophic results no matter which indicators you consider, including consumption. If Uruguay’s experience turns out positive, it will be easier for other countries such as Colombia or Mexico, mired in huge problems with powerful narcos, to find a better solution than the disastrous one implemented so far.” […]
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Government Paper Says Welfare Drug Tests ‘Ought Not Be Considered’
“Whilst it is understandable why some might presume that drug testing is a useful strategy, it is high in cost, may have unintended adverse outcomes, and raises serious ethical and legal issues,” the paper said. “Its drawbacks may be addressed, at least in part, if it is clearly demonstrated that drug testing effectively meets its aims and reduces risk. […]
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Move Over Hippocrates: Harm Reduction as the New Paradigm for Health Care
We live in a world of rampant harms and not enough resources in health care to contain them. Our paradigm should evolve from “do no harm” to “reduce harm.” Chained by practicality, physicians don’t have the luxury of shooting for the impossibility of no harm. It’s time for us to embrace, on all topics – sex, drugs, smoking, etc. […]
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No external experts asked about Coalition’s drug test policy, officials say
The Australian National Council on Drugs warned four years ago that there was “no evidence” that drug testing welfare recipients would have any positive effects, and found drug use was not, by itself, a significant barrier to employment. The Coalition says the measure, announced in the budget, is designed to remove a barrier to welfare recipients gaining employment, but drug…
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Australia ‘deserves better’ than US-style drug testing of welfare recipients
Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the US experience showed drug testing welfare recipients was not effective. “Looking overseas, what is becoming clear is the drug testing policy is introduced or proposed for purely political reasons, as a way of saying to voters ‘we are taking action on drug use’, Australia deserves better than this, we need evidence-based policy,” Siewert said. […]
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Welfare drug test: which countries do it and has it worked anywhere?
Despite their high cost, welfare drug testing programs are popping up in new states across the US. The proponents argue they save money, identify and help people struggling with substance abuse, and ensure welfare money isn’t subsidising an illegal act. But critics point out there’s little evidence this is the best way to use resources, and the programs are really…
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We have waged war on drugs for a century. So who won?
It should not take extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in 2017 to make the world realise that global drug prohibition has turned out to be an expensive way of making a bad problem much worse. […]
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Injecting drug use increases worldwide, but no increases in needle and syringe programmes
“This is the first time that there has been no increase since we started monitoring coverage of harm reduction services in 2008. Access to one of the most important HIV prevention and harm reduction services is stagnating, while rates of injecting drug use are increasing.” […]
