-
Pressure for permanent pill-testing service in Canberra after successful festival trials
Greens leader and Minister for Mental Health Shane Rattenbury acknowledged there were many in the community still uncomfortable with pill testing, but said the debate had to move on. “It’s been effective in potentially saving young lives. For me, that’s the bottom line,” he said. “I would hate to see a young person die because they wanted to experiment, they…
-
Dr James Martin – Tobacco Harm Reduction Advisor
James Martin, PhD, SFHEA, is a criminologist and Course Director at Deakin University, and a leading expert and commentator in the field of illicit drugs and black markets. His research has a strong critical emphasis on harm reduction as well as the futility and disastrous consequences of the War on Drugs. […]
-
Letting Australians get drugs from a doctor rather than a dealer will save lives
Regulation is not utopia in Australia. Instead, it’s a pragmatic approach to taking control of a situation that’s taking too many young lives. The NSW premier has an opportunity to change the state for the better. To create a healthier and safer society where harms to our children are reduced and lives are saved. […]
-
Drug Alerts: Warning the Public About Toxic Batches of Illicit Drugs
The war on drugs has been hailed an abject failure. And a prime example as to why is that prohibition has resulted in a rise in the availability of illegal drugs, as well as increased levels of consumption. And without any quality control, no one has any idea of what they’re actually taking. […]
-
NSW commission recommends more injecting clinics to stem tide of ice
A NSW special commission of inquiry into crystal methamphetamine has recommended the decriminalisation of illicit drugs, the statewide expansion of injecting clinics, and drug testing facilities for users at fixed sites, under a dramatic overhaul of existing policies criticised for failing to stem addiction around Australia. As a fundamental first step, Commissioner Dan Howard SC also emphasised what a chorus…
-
NSW government rejects pill testing, more injecting rooms
On Thursday the government released the four-volume report and its interim response a month after the inquiry’s findings were delivered by Commissioner Professor Dan Howard. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the government would not support the inquiry’s recommendations to open more medically supervised injecting centres, run needle and syringe programs in prisons, allow consumer substance testing (more commonly known as…
-
Hand-picked commissioner slams government’s ‘tired, unimaginative’ drug policies
The state government has been left embarrassed after the professor hand-picked to solve the ice crisis landed ministers with a raft of suggestions they have already rejected. Opening up more injecting rooms, ditching drug detection dogs at music festivals, limiting strip searches, making ice pipes legal, and decriminalising the personal use of ice were among the controversial recommendations handed down…
-
Australia’s war on drugs is a failure
When policymakers consider how ongoing drug use trends combine with this new threat, it is clear that current and previous drug strategies will not be an effective tool, and lack the necessary ability to truly tackle this issue. A strong policy response to these problems will require innovative approaches that shift Australia from where it currently is to where it…
-
Growing push for Sydney’s second medically supervised injecting room
The Berejiklian government is facing a growing push to set up a safe injecting room in western Sydney as data on overdose deaths show the opioid crisis has spread to the outer suburbs. Criminologists are the latest to call for a second injecting room after a recommendation from Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame, who said politics should not stop “sound…
-
‘No excuse’: Doctors urge immediate release of ice inquiry report
Doctors and drug law reform advocates are calling on the NSW government to urgently release the findings of a special commission of inquiry into the drug ice. The four-volume report was delivered to the Berejiklian government by commissioner Professor Dan Howard on January 28, but the government has not publicly shared its findings or committed to a release date. […]
