• Drug laws not fit-for-purpose, world-leading drug experts warn

    Professor Louisa Degenhardt, co-author and researcher at UNSW’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), said confronting false claims that drug users were undeserving of humane treatment was a “social and moral imperative”. She said drug dependency should be treated as a chronic disease and governments should adopt evidence-based policies and therapies only. […]

  • Pill testing trial to only cost $3.8 million, say Victorian Greens

    “Everyone deserves to enjoy music festivals safely, but Victoria’s out-of-date and punitive drug laws are putting those who enjoy festivals at risk,” said Victorian Greens’ health spokesperson Dr Tim Read. “Pill testing reduces harmful drug use and connects young people to harm reduction services.” Dr Read says that savings will also flow on, by also preventing hospital admissions caused by…

  • NSW police officer admits his 19 strip searches at music festival may have been illegal

    A police officer who conducted 19 strip searches at a 2018 music festival has admitted to an inquiry that all of them may have been illegal. The commission heard only one of the searches conducted by the officer found any drugs: a single diazepam tablet, a drug used to treat anxiety and depression, prompting the commissioner, Michael Adams QC, to…

  • Respectfully, Premier, you’ve made a big mistake

    This is not a matter of giving a green light to drugs. It is doing what we do with safe injecting rooms – saying: “We wish you wouldn’t take these drugs, but if you are going to do it, at least do it while minimising the risks, and let us talk to you about the dangers while we have your…

  • Why is the Uniting Church backing pill testing?

    In a statement issued on 15 October, NSW and ACT Moderator Rev. Simon Hansford said that pill testing gave greater opportunities for treatment. “Pill testing can be the first opportunity someone has to talk to a health professional about drug use and its inherent risks,” Rev. Hansford said. This trial, Rev. […]

  • Violent threats against coroner over pill testing recommendations

    Jennie Ross-King, who said she supported all of Ms Grahame’s recommendations, said there was a “level of contempt” for the inquiry: “If they [those who leaked the document] had any interest whatsoever in the process, then I would assume they would’ve been following the evidence and this wouldn’t have come as a surprise.” […]

  • Time for a different approach to music festival deaths

    The Herald still believes that the approach to fighting deaths at festivals based solely on education campaigns and tougher policing is not working. It has been in place for decades but the deaths continue. Ms Berejiklian is wary of trying something new. But the case for a highly regulated limited trial of pill-testing and changes to police tactics is building.…

  • Almost half of people who regularly consume ecstasy have tested their drugs

    A report in The Daily Telegraph detailed the draft recommendations from a coronial inquest into a spate of drug-related deaths at NSW music festivals in the summer of 2017 and 2018. In the leaked documents, NSW Coroner Harriet Grahame recommended pill testing be introduced, and that police body searches and sniffer dogs be scrapped. […]

  • Pill testing at festivals ‘may be backed by NSW coroner’

    Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has hinted she could remain open to the possibility of pill testing at music festivals amid reports the NSW Coroner is also considering recommendations police drug operations be scaled back at events.Ms Pilbersek told Today initiatives such as the medically supervised injecting centre in Sydney’s King Cross, where addicts can inject and get medical help away…

  • Calls to establish static pill testing trial in Canberra

    The ACT Greens are calling for a static pill testing trial to be established in the ACT following the release of a draft recommendation by the NSW coroner stating that pill testing reduces harm from drug use.Greens spokesperson for Drug Law Reform Shane Rattenbury says the NSW coroner is an independent judicial body that has today, after exploring the evidence in…