Some suspiciously hard, grey pills were made of concrete and several samples of “cocaine” and “ketamine” were in fact ground-up anti-malaria tablets. Even the real drugs varied dangerously in potency: the strongest ecstasy pills were five times as potent as the weakest. […]

If we can acknowledge that addiction is like a disease in some ways and very much unlike a disease in other ways, maybe we can stop trying to label it and pay more attention to the best means for overcoming it. […]

“For the first time we’ve been able to offer the testing service to individual users as part of a tailored advice and information package provided by a team of experienced workers. This can help people make informed choices, raising awareness of dangerous substances and reducing the chance of drug-related problems.” […]

Next month’s summit, the initiative of a group of MPs from across political divides, will consider how a harm-minimisation approach could be extended to today’s major drug challenges, including the rising availability and use of ice. […]

Advocates of minimising the dangers of drugs are frustrated that tens of thousands of young partygoers at one of the biggest events on the music festival calendar this weekend have no organised drug testing available to them. […]

The advocates of decriminalising cannabis now have an economic case to press. A Treasury official, in a document prepared for a brainstorming session, suggested the Government could save more than $500 million a year legalising the popular drug. […]

Italy hopes to jown a growing list of countries that have recently reformed marijuana laws. If Italy passes the bill currently under consideration, it would become the first European country to legalize marijuana for non-medical use. […]

It’s well and truly time we opened more Drug Consumption Rooms in our major cities and in some of our larger regional centres. New centres should also be able to handle people who inhale ice, a drug about which the community rightly remains concerned. […]

How much pain you have to suffer shouldn’t be determined by where you live, and it is unacceptable that we let stigma and misguided fears of addiction get in the way of allowing patients to realize their right to health. […]

Mr Noffs said there were only two perspectives on drug use — those who see the evidence and what the rest of the world is doing and the other group who close their eyes and hope the ice problem goes away without help. […]