News
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Drug-affected revellers don’t seek help because of ‘dogs with big teeth’ and large police presence at festivals, addiction specialist tells MDMA deaths inquest as she calls for pill testing
Engaging with people around that use and helping them to make the choices that are right for them works very well.’ Addiction specialist Dr Wilson noted that while there’s a difference between recreational drug takers and addicts, safety checking via medically-supervised injecting rooms has helped users create trusting relationships with…
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Music festival deaths inquest hears presence of police gods led to panicked drug taking
Speaking during the second week of the inquest, Dr Hester Wilson stated “(festivalgoers) naturally will be worried that if they seek help, they’re going to get into trouble. “That’s one of the dynamics with the large police presence with dogs … it’s a deterrent.” Dr Wilson said she supported drug…
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Doctor Is Pushing For MDMA And Cannabis To Be Legalised In Australia To Save Lives
Senior research fellow Dr Monica Barrett from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre says the current government attitude of ‘just say no’ isn’t working. “If pure MDMA with known dosage were available for recreational purposes, the need for a comprehensive monitoring system for novel drugs and emerging drug trends…
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Friend of Josh Tam says they knew the risk of taking drugs
Choking up, Mr Tam’s friend said they “would never touch MDMA again”. He said it was vital pill testing was available at festivals: “It’s stupid not to have pill testing. I just think how much one death has affected myself and everyone, if we can save one person then we’ve…
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Pill testing in Tasmania: how we got here
The PTA and Dr Caldicott organised a pill testing trial at ACT’s Groovin’ The Moo in 2018. Dr Caldicott said pill testing was not about promoting the use of illicit drugs, rather a way of giving users information about the risk of taking them. “We demonstrate right in front of…
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‘Never meant to happen’: the fear and failure behind NSW’s drug deaths
“The idea of believing that saying to young people in possession of drugs ‘just say no’ is an effective message represents either a phenomenal misunderstanding of how the adolescent mind works, or just a lack of concern,” the emergency doctor and pill-testing advocate David Caldicott said this week. […]
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Government’s welfare drug-testing plans will end in disaster
“A drug testing pilot would have delivered an ineffective, expensive and harmful regime that would have hindered, not helped Australians struggling with addiction,” noted Associate Professor Adrian Reynolds, President of the Royal Australian College of Physician’s Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine, in a celebratory statement when the proposal was first…
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Parents warn of more music festival drug deaths as inquest begins
“So called recreational drug use will not magically disappear. In fact, in all likelihood, it will get a whole lot worse. Just saying don’t do it, we must all now agree, isn’t working. This is a health management issue. People are dying. I’m 100 per cent certain that if our…
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Festival overdose victim took multiple pills before event ‘to avoid police detection’
In Ross-King’s case, counsel assisting the inquest Peggy Dwyer said, the presence of police at the festival appeared to be a direct cause for her decision to “double dose” or “double dropping”; taking more than one pill at once, something she said was common. Studies in Australia have shown that almost…
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NSW music festival deaths inquest begins
Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame will preside over the two weeks of hearings. She said: “They could be any young people who go to music festivals and partake in drugs as many young people do. These are our young people … and we owe them a proper investigation of the…