A prominent pill testing advocate has hit back at claims their proposal to provide the service at Canberra’s upcoming Groovin The Moo music festival was not well formed, saying the ACT government even knew the uniforms staff were going to wear. […]

A groundbreaking report was released last month on the future of drug policy in Australia. The report, Can Australia respond to drugs more effectively and safely? openly acknowledged the failure of Australia’s punitive drug policies and called for a steady path towards decriminalisation. […]

If Congress were to legalize medical marijuana nationwide for medicinal purposes, it could save the Medicaid program $1 billion in prescription drug costs, according to new study published in Health Affairs. […]

Public health experts have been lobbying for a drug-testing program at Canberra music festivals for years. They say the practice, which is mainstream in several other countries, helps protect revellers from bad or dangerous substances that could lead to overdoses. […]

Activists say that legalising marijuana will help patients to get high quality cannabis for their conditions, and by regulating the drug, the government can keep a tab on the criminality associated with it. […]

“Even though most people are for it, and we have the technology, pill testing is a topic no politician is brave enough to talk about. So it’s still illegal in Australia and people like my son continue to die,” says Adriana Buccianti. […]

The plan is entitled “The Cannabis Act” and will allow Canadians to buy and possess 30 grams of marijuana, or the equivalent in edibles or oil. Since the plan was introduced by the governing Liberal Party, which holds a majority in Parliament, it will almost certainly become law without significant change. […]

As Ombudsman Deborah Glass noted in a September 2015 report, while the public is understandably horrified by violent crime, the evidence does not show pouring funds into the correctional system is making us any safe. […]

The ministers traffic in votes and illusions, and finding drugs provides a false incentive for both. What is needed, as The Age editorial surmised in November last year, is a policy “in favour of a harm minimisation strategy based on decriminalisation, regulation and education.” Paramilitary approaches should be ditched, and resources channeled into health. […]

The federal government has invested $300 million into ice education and rehabilitation but Dr Wodak, a former director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, argues a more progressive policy is needed. “I’m not suggesting for a minute that we take money off law enforcement but we need to put serious money into prevention”. […]