News
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Greece Health Ministry Plans Drug Consumption Rooms
The Greek health ministry is preparing a legislative amendment to permit the opening of drug consumption rooms in Athens, after a university’s claim that it’s overwhelmed by widespread public drug use. The drug consumption rooms (DCRs) – if approved – will provide a hygienic environment and sterile equipment for people to…
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Proposal for second pill-testing trial as Groovin the Moo moves to EPIC
One of the key players in last year’s trial, Dr David Caldicott, said the festival’s move to Exhibition Park gave the consortium more hope than if it had moved to Federal land, and it would now be assessing the specific needs of the new venue. He said the proposal for…
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Groovin the Moo to make EPIC return to ACT but what about pill testing?
Pill testing could return to Groovin the Moo when the music festival moves to its new home at Exhibition Park in Canberra next April. Following the success of an Australian-first pill testing trial at the festival in April, the consortium behind the trial has put in a suite of proposals for other…
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Getting My Club Drugs Tested Transformed My Partying Habits
Taking drugs is never completely safe. They all come with varying degrees of risk, which increase significantly if you ingest more than one substance at once. But if we want to curtail these overdoses, the government needs to fund pragmatic approaches like this, and sooner rather than later. Nobody needs…
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More Universities Should Follow Sheffield’s Harm Reduction Approach
Although neither Sheffield University nor the Student Union condones the use of drugs on campus, their approach acknowledges how students may use drugs during their time at university. The Student Union links to harm reduction guidance, including details about needle exchanges, while also providing external guidance from The Loop –…
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Pill-testing: budget office finds it would cost $16m to put services in major cities
The Greens have revealed a plan to open 18 pill-testing services across Australia at a cost of $16m, saying the policy would disrupt drug dealing networks and cut preventable deaths. The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, a former drug and alcohol doctor, said the war on drugs had failed because 1…
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Hell Yeah: The Greens Are Calling For A Nationwide Pill Testing Program
“The war on drugs is a war on people — it has destroyed thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars,” said Greens leader Richard Di Natale, a former drug and alcohol doctor. “Instead of protecting the community it is actually placing them at greater risk of harm. Pill testing has…
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Greens unveil plan for 18 pill-testing shopfronts across Australia
Recreational drug users would be able to pop in to a shop and test their pills under a plan by the Australian Greens. Party leader Richard Di Natale today paid a morning visit to a Melbourne nightclub to unveil plans for 18 pill-testing shopfronts, costing $16 million over four years.…
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The dollars and sense of drug law reform
As NZ Green MP Chloe Swarbrick points out, there is a certain hypocrisy in MPs who have used drugs presiding over archaic drug laws. But if the moral or health-based arguments fail to persuade them and us, perhaps the economic ones will. […]
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NZ: MPs should ‘walk the talk’ and decriminalise drug use, say the Greens
The Green Party says it is time for politicians to start walking the talk on drug policy and decriminalise drug use so users can access health services without fear of the law. An independent report into drug policy, released today, said that a harm-reduction approach and regulated sale of legal cannabis…