• Ice epidemic not a criminal issue: experts

    The Australian government’s current approach to the ice epidemic is only “digging a deeper hole” and progressive policy is needed, say two drug addiction experts. A “harsh” approach is not just ineffective but counter-productive, Dr Matthew Frei and Dr Alex Wodak write in the Medical Journal of Australia. […]

  • Duterte’s war on drugs riddled with corruption: Human rights group

    A Human Rights Watch report released on Wednesday (Mar 3) stated that the police and gangs or vigilantes are often one and the same. The report said: “In several cases we investigated, the police dismissed allegations of involvement and instead classified such killings as ‘found bodies’ or ‘deaths under investigation’ when only hours before the suspects had been in police custody.”…

  • Philippines Drug War: “I’m seeing my countrymen die”

    Local photographers on the frontline of Duterte’s drug war reflect on the images that moved them most. […]

  • Yes, we can do on-the-spot drug testing quickly and safely

    Drug testing at music festivals is very much about intervention and encouraging behavioural changes, rather than just drily delivering a result. We know from research that the majority of consumers would not take a pill if test results indicated the substance wasn’t what they thought it was. […]

  • Why there’s no legal barrier to a Melbourne drug injecting room, despite political setback

    Such facilities are often a gateway for connecting marginalised and disadvantaged people to vital health care and other support services. This includes, for those who want it, alcohol and drug treatment services. Most importantly, supervised drug injection facilities around the world have prevented many fatal drug overdoses. And Sydney’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre has overseen nearly one million injections and managed…

  • The ‘War On Drugs’ Has Been A Deadly Failure

    There will be more deaths in the months to come, and as the disparity between expert recommendation and government action becomes more apparent, so will the anger of (voting) parents and loved ones. And every time there is another tragic, unnecessary loss of a precious, precious young Australian, those who stand in the way of what the health community is…

  • Viewing addiction as a brain disease promotes social injustice

    An insidious assumption of the diseased brain theory is that any use of certain drugs is considered pathological, even the non-problematic, recreational use that characterizes the experience of the overwhelming majority who ingest these drugs. For example, in a popular US anti-drug campaign, it is implied that one hit of methamphetamine is enough to cause irrevocable damage […]

  • Thousands march against Duterte’s war on drugs, ‘violence culture’

    Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in the Philippine capital in a “show of force” today to protest against the extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug war. The rally, called the “Walk for Life”, gathered 20,000 people, according to the organisers. […]

  • Talking tough appeals more to pollies than fixing our drug problems

    We need to decriminalise the personal use of drugs so people with problematic drug use are able to engage with our health services rather than hide for fear of prosecution. We must establish and build upon the innovative lifesaving programs that we know already work well — programs such as heroin prescription, injecting facilities and easier access to treatment to name…

  • Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte Wants to Expand His Deadly Drug War to 9-Year-Olds

    Duterte is looking to ramp things up further by lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 all the way down to 9. A bill that would do just that was actually introduced right around the time he was sworn in, and one of its co-authors says he expects it to be approved by the nation’s congress within the next…