• ‘Ice Wars’ message is overblown and unhelpful

    Fear drives poor policy, policy that focuses on “crackdowns”, “zero tolerance” and scare campaigns. None of these things is effective. We know what reduces drug related harms in the community is a focus on support, on keeping people alive and on access to treatment. […]

  • The ABC’s ‘Ice Wars’ Is Exploiting Vulnerable Addicts

    What (we) don’t need is the ABC piling even more pressure on them with stories and interviews that are ethically and factually questionable. The focus on the extreme individual situations in these programmes are likely to fill families with despair rather than hope. We have witnessed many successful treatment outcomes from ice and this needs to be included in any realistic…

  • Melbourne could open drug injecting room like Kings Cross

    “If you have problematic injecting drug use and a number of people are requiring ambulance attendance because of overdose and a number of people are dying of accidental overdose and discarded equipment is in the streets, there’s public use going on and the local business community and local residents are sick of that and you’re lucky enough to have local…

  • Better Solution Than a Border Wall? End Drug Prohibition

    So what’s the solution? Legalization. Yes, legalize marijuana, which is the number one producer of wealth for the cartels. End the federal prohibition, reschedule cannabis, invest in research and infrastructure, support medical advances and improve upon the nation’s economy all the while ending the war on drugs and dismantling the illicit market, which thrives on prohibition. […]

  • Australia needs to speak up about the Philippines’ murderous ‘war on drugs’

    A longstanding relationship between two countries means being able to stand up for what’s right. Australia has to be prepared to deliver difficult messages, not becoming indulgent of, or indifferent to, murder on a mass scale, like what we’re seeing in the Philippines. […]

  • Needle exchanges in prisons can save money and lives

    Incarcerated addicts shouldn’t be denied the health protections that are available to everyone else. The government should have faith in its evidence-based approach, and bring harm reduction inside prison walls. […]

  • New crystal caps on Australian streets could cause more ecstasy deaths

    A call to introduce pill testing in Victoria has been shut down by the state government. A spokeswoman for Health Minister Martin Foley told the Leader there were no plans to introduce it, despite the three deaths in Melbourne earlier this month. […]

  • War on drugs — It’s time to change tactics

    Today law enforcement agencies continue to receive more than 65 per cent of the national drug budget to arrest people using drugs — so rather just saying we can’t arrest our way out of a drug problem, maybe it’s time to actually do something different. […]

  • Philippines to disband police anti-drugs units after killing of South Korean businessman

    The Philippines police will disband anti-drugs units following the killing of a South Korean businessman by rogue officers, but President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to forge ahead with his war on drugs until the last day of his term. […]

  • Do large seizures of illicit drugs really make a difference?

    Law enforcement attempts to interrupt the supply of illicit drugs are neither effective nor cost effective and they produce substantial collateral damage. Change is starting to happen in some countries and will eventually start in Australia. […]