News
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HRA Welcomes New Board Members
HRA is pleased to announce 4 new Board Members Media-Release-HRA-Announces-New-Board-Members-Feb-2020Download […]
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Destroying amnesty bin drugs a wasted opportunity: Health experts
Health experts warn destroying drugs ditched in amnesty bins is a wasted opportunity. The bins give festival-goers a chance to ditch their illegal drugs – and have been used at eight events in New South Wales. Currently, the substances collected are destroyed by a waste management company. The Deputy State…
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ACT cannabis laws come into effect on Friday, but they may not be what you hoped for
The ACT laws are a good first step, but they contradict federal laws that make cultivation and possession of cannabis a criminal offence. And it’s not clear whether these federal laws will continue to be enforced in the ACT. The new laws also do little to regulate the supply of…
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Joint Media Release re NSW Ice Special Commission Report
A joint media release from HRA, Take Control & Pill Testing Australia regarding the NSW Special Commission on Ice Report being handed to the NSW Government Joint-MR-Ice-Commission-Report-Government-must-move-swiftly-to-release-and-respond-to-Ice-Commission-findings-4Download […]
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Music festivals responsible for minuscule percentage of drug deaths
Counsel assisting the ice inquiry have urged commissioner Dan Howard, SC, to recommend the personal use of ice and other illicit drugs be decriminalised in NSW under a public health-focused drug policy. Under the potential recommendations, pill testing would also be trialled and the use of medically supervised drug consumption…
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North Wales Police boss says UK should regulate cannabis and allow home grows
Police and Crime Commissioner Jones believes that the UK’s approach to drugs needs to change. He said: “In my policing career I have never met anyone who has caused violence through cannabis, as opposed to the hundreds of violence cases I have seen related to alcohol, which is a legal…
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Does the future of music festivals rely on pill testing?
Few are better placed to comment on the impact of pill testing at the coal face than Dr David Caldicott from the ANU College of Health & Medicine and Pill Testing Australia. Twice, he has been part of a team that provided government-sanctioned on-site facilities at Groovin the Moo festival. “We knew…
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Time to put politics aside and implement pill testing
The upfront cost of drug safety testing is relatively minor; indeed, a simple reallocation of public money currently spent on drug detection dogs would more than fully fund it. It would also save costs of emergency services and hospitalisations. Drug safety testing is a proven harm reduction measure. Drug detection dogs…
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Drug Decriminalization: A Matter of Justice and Equity, Not Just Health
The underlying reasons for a new policy direction are critically important and, on that, many well-intentioned newcomers to the chorus are somewhat off key. The central cause for drug law reform is not its relevance to health or the present public health catastrophe. It is a matter of correcting a…
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‘Lots of parents scared’: mother of music festival reveller who died takes control
The grieving mother of festivalgoer Alex Ross-King is appealing to parents to ‘‘have a conversation with your kids that accepts reality’’ in a social media campaign about harm minimisation and drugs. Jennie Ross-King, whose 19-year-old daughter died after consuming almost three MDMA capsules, said the campaign was aimed at arming…