Gloria Lai leads on the Asia regional programme for the International Drug Policy Consortium secretariat as the Regional Director – Asia, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to this role, she worked as a senior policy advisor in the Illicit Drugs Section, Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department and the Law Enforcement Strategy Division, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, and as a…

“It is difficult to understand why we wouldn’t use harm reduction as part of our response to drug use. We mandate seatbelts and helmets; Medicine provides symptomatic relief side by side with treatment for a problem. Harm reduction is logically and experientially essential to addressing problematic, indeed all, drug use. It is the key to responding as a community to…

Greg Chipp is a director of Drug Policy Australia, a newly-established public health NGO primarily concerned with drug policy advocacy and with promoting new legislative approaches to minimise the harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances. Greg has been actively involved in politics and public policy development for several decades, beginning with his involvement in the Australian Democrats, a…

I fully support Harm Reduction Australia and believe that its formation is much needed and long overdue. I believe Harm Reduction Australia should endorse and promote harm reduction as a policy approach, an area which has been significantly neglected over recent years despite its cost effectiveness and strong evidence base. Harm Reduction Australia is well placed to advocate for programs…

We live in a world where people are imprisoned and executed for drug related crimes as part of the ‘war on drugs’. It is time for leaders at all levels to recognise the futility of this approach and focus instead on strengthening harm reduction efforts as the most cost-effective and humane approach to drug use in our society. […]

Primum non nocere (above all do no harm) is a basic principle in medicine. In treating cancer, heart disease or diabetes, the harms of disease are balanced against the harms of intervening – mastectomy, amputation, chemotherapy and the side-effects of medicines. Minimising harm is the everyday work of a doctor. There are tradeoffs too in public health – in preventing…

I challenge anyone who doubts the appropriateness of the harm reduction approach to spend a day with people who inject drugs on the streets of Sydney’s Kings Cross. They should then explain how removing services that have been shown to effectively reduce the immediate harms faced while comprehensively addressing the usually complex underlying reasons that people are living in this…

Jake is a Research Fellow with the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH), UNSW Sydney, where for over 10 years he has worked with people who inject drugs, including those living with hepatitis C or imprisoned. Jake sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Drug Policy and the Harm Reduction Journal and works closely with government…

A/Prof James Ward is Head of Infectious Diseases Research – Aboriginal Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute in Adelaide. He is of the Pitjantjatjara and Nurrunga peoples from central and south Australia. James has extensive experience in sexual health and blood borne virus research, and alcohol and other drug use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander…

Australia can be a country where people who use drugs are treated with respect, dignity and empathy.  Good drug policy will help us to achieve this. We will only have good policy however, if we share and act upon our knowledge, to promote greater understanding of harm reduction as an essential element of our health system response to drug use.…