News
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Norway to give free heroin to 400 addicts: report
The Aftenposten newspaper reported on Thursday evening that Health Minister Bent Høie had asked the Norwegian Directorate of Health to draw up a list of which addicts were most suitable to receive so-called “heroin-assisted treatment”, and to assess the economic consequences of developing a heroin treatment program. […]
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GINO VUMBACA. Drug Reform series-At last, a government sanctioned pill testing program
Governments across the country need to publicly acknowledge that our health and law enforcement systems have worked, and can continue to work, effectively together in the grey areas of life. No-one wants to see young people (or any people) harmed from drug use but to simply believe that we have…
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TONY TRIMINGHAM. Drug Reform Series-Don’t punish drug users. Help them instead.
The need for drug policy reform remains as urgent as ever. We need to talk to our politicians, write to the newspapers, enlist the support of young people who are so often damaged by current drug policies. By educating people on the pitfalls of current drug policy, we stand a…
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The Wrong Way to Fight a Drug War
“Among all the presidents I’ve known, Duterte’s the only one who’s taken the drug problem seriously,” said Rechi Cristobal, a specialist I spoke with who has spent years as a counselor training health workers. Yet in tackling addiction, Mr. Duterte’s tactics may be harming more than helping. “It’s scared everyone…
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Decriminalizing drugs: “We need a more compassionate approach”
Countries that have decriminalized personal drug use and possession and invested in public health interventions have seen positive results. For example, since decriminalization, Portugal has seen a reduction in drug use among vulnerable populations and increases in the number of people accessing treatment. There have also been significant decreases in…
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Inside Rodrigo Duterte’s raging war on drugs
Though in the “barangay” slums [a small administrative district] drugs watch lists predate Duterte’s administration, he has used them to instil fear and to impose a paranoiac’s version of social order. Despite a reported spike of more than 50 per cent in the national murder rate [according to figures from…
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Why the fly-spray and toxic waste hysteria on synthetics has to stop
Instead of “metaphor” and melodrama we need facts. The whole field is littered with hyperbole, which is precisely what makes people overly cynical and no longer receptive to harm reduction messaging. When you tell a generation that MDMA is eating a hole in their brain and that turns out to…
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NZ: Health Minister David Clark in favour of liberalising drug laws
Health Minister David Clark is personally in favour of more liberal drug laws because prohibition has not worked in the past. But Clark would not commit to abiding by the result of any referendum on loosening laws around cannabis use, saying he preferred to wait for advice from his colleagues.…
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Drug users in outer Sydney need another medically supervised consumption room
Government and public health officials in Melbourne have recently agreed to the establishment of an injecting centre in their city, citing the success of the Kings Cross facility. It now seems entirely appropriate that a city as large, expansive and diverse as Sydney, and with its sizeable number of injecting…
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Drug users shouldn’t be treated like criminals
When I am asked by people at the ceremony why people using drugs are treated as criminals and pursued by the law, I have to be honest and say I don’t know why, in the face of all the evidence, we have governments that still prefer to punish rather than…