News
-
![Smoking rates at record low… or is it just [illicit] smoke and mirrors?](https://www.harmreductionaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Prohibition-smoking-image-1.jpeg)
Smoking rates at record low… or is it just [illicit] smoke and mirrors?
“The best way to fight a black market, is with a well functioning legal one.” See this latest piece in The Conversation by HRA tobacco harm reduction adviser, Dr James Martin and colleagues Dr Ed Jegasothy and Dr Paul Kelaita… https://theconversation.com/three-things-australia-must-do-to-end-the-tobacco-wars-287569 […]
-
Pill Testing Policy Brief
Pill Testing (Drug Checking) Services in Australia: a Public Health and Harm Reduction PriorityPill testing services (also known as ‘drug checking’) enable people who use drugs to understand more about what is in their substances, empowering safer decisions, and connecting them with health and social supports – an intervention that…
-
National Wastewater Drug Monitoring… Through a Harm Reduction Lens
A Harm Reduction Dilemma: Surveillance, Prohibition & Pragmatism For an organisation like Harm Reduction Australia, wastewater monitoring represents a fundamental dilemma. To understand why, see HRA’s new analysis (below) of the latest Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) wastewater report, released in April 2026… National Wastewater Drug Monitoring through a…
-
12 Month Trial of Naloxone Distribution Machines in Victoria…
HRA is pleased to be able to publicly support the roll-out of a new statewide naloxone distribution machine trial providing free access to naloxone in key sites across Melbourne and regional & rural Victoria. For more information on this important initiative see Dr Chris Alderman, Pharmacist and HRA Board member…
-
Media Release: A Caution Can Save A Life…
HRA backs expansion of cannabis cautioning, but says legal reform still needed… Harm Reduction Australia (HRA) welcomes moves to expand access to cannabis cautioning in Victoria but says the reform should be understood as an important harm reduction measure, not a substitute for broader cannabis law reform. Read full media release…
-
Inquiry into the Illegal Tobacco Crisis in Australia
HRA and HRA’s Tobacco Harm Reduction Adviser, Dr Alex Wodak have taken the opportunity to make submissions to the current Federal Government Inquiry into the Illegal Tobacco Crisis in Australia with both submissions linked below… Federal Inquiry into the Illegal Tobacco Crisis in Australia – HRA Submission 20032026Download Illegal tobacco…
-
HRA Submission to DAP Program Logic & KPIs
HRA took the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft Drug and Alcohol Program (DAP) Program Logic and KPIs, which will inform the development of the new Grant Opportunity Guidelines (GOGs) for the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability & Ageing. We are particularly concerned about the absence of harm reduction as…
-
HRA 2025 AOD Data Report
Following the successful inaugural report early last year, we are back with another comprehensive overview of the key national data sources on alcohol & other drugs (AOD) and harm reduction. This report brings together key data from the routine data monitoring systems and national surveys on AOD issues. Until last…
-
WA’s New Illicit Tobacco & Vape Laws: Tougher Isn’t Better…
A Harm Reduction Perspective… Western Australia has recently moved to introduce some of the harshest penalties in the country for illicit tobacco and vaping offences. This blog explores this concerning development from a harm reduction perspective and why residents of WA, and frankly all Australians, should be concerned about the…
-
Prohibitive policies drove organised crime in Australia 100 years ago. It’s happening again…
Organised crime has a long history in Australia. For more than a century, criminal groups have accumulated vast fortunes, committed countless acts of intimidation and coercion and, at times, extreme and spectacular violence. But, as James Martin (HRA Tobacco Harm Reduction Adviser & Deakin Uni Criminologist) and Ed Jegasothy (Senior…