News
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‘We’re not this crazy church’: Vatican audience for drug reformist
In selecting Dr Wodak to speak at the Vatican’s ‘Drugs and Addictions’ conference on December 1, Catholic Health Australia CEO Suzanne Greenwood said she was aware the Drug Law Reform Foundation president’s opinions might not be equally held by the global headquarters of the church. Dr Wodak used his platform to call…
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Drug Foundation backs move to treat personal drug use as health issue
“The Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry has joined a chorus of other voices urging the Government to treat drugs as a health and social issue. Based on these recommendations the Government can be confident its plans to take a fresh approach to drugs is the right thing to do,” said…
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NZ: Mental health report recommends re-think on drug charges
The panel, led by the former health watchdog Ron Paterson, spent roughly 10 months consulting people around the country, holding more than 400 meetings and considering about 5000 submissions. The recommendations include taking strong action on drugs by enacting a stricter regulatory approach to the sale and supply of alcohol…
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This Is How Coke, Ecstasy and Meth Would Be Legally Sold
Different drugs are associated with different risks, and the whole idea of regulation is to manage and reduce risk, so the regulatory tools you’d deploy are going to vary. Within stimulants there’s an enormous array of products and risks, so you’d have various models to regulate price, potency, packaging, vendors…
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She exposed Duterte’s drug war, now she faces prison in the Philippines
Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is due to land in Manila this weekend, when supporters fear she could be arrested, after she and her company were formally indicted on multiple counts of tax evasion this week, charges critics say are politically motivated and designed to silence independent media in the southeast…
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Parliament lights up as Canberra gets baked
Dr David Caldicott, the clinical lead at the ANU’s Australian Medicinal Cannabis Observatory, told The RiotACT that a bill like Pettersson’s could limit the drug’s availability to underage consumers and undermine the illicit drug market in the ACT. “From a public health perspective, there are merits to an argument of a…
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Community groups mount fight to stop mandatory drug detention laws
A coalition of community groups said there was no proof mandatory treatment worked and warned it would operate at an exorbitant cost. The SA Council of Social Services, Australian Medical Association, SA Network of Drug and Alcohol Services, Uniting Communities and Guardian for Children and Young People Penny Wright all…
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Philippines police officers jailed for killing student in drugs war
Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros, who has railed against the drug killings, said the court decision proved that extrajudicial killings under Mr Duterte’s crackdown were really being committed by rogue members of the national police force. “This is a light in the darkness,” Ms Hontiveros said in a statement. “Despite the…
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“Stop playing politics with young Tasmanian lives”: Dark Mofo supports pill-testing in Tasmanian festivals
Tasmania’s innovative Dark Mofo festival has joined the debate about pill-testing at music festivals in the island state. Tasmanian festivals should be able to offer legal pill testing in order to save lives, says Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael. […]
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‘Drug policies should be first of all concerned with preserving public health’
Usually, problems are photosensitive. Put them to the light and they disappear. Prohibition keeps us in the dark. There’s difficulty for research, for understanding the ramifications, of getting data, of understanding why people do it. The paradigm needs to change to move beyond the failure—and drug control is a failure…