News
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Even the ACT Health Minister Wants to Legalise Drug Testing at Festivals
The ACT’s Justice and Mental Health Minister, Shane Rattenbury, agreed with STA-SAFE, telling the Guardian, “I’d certainly encourage [consultation between states]…It’s always hardest to do these things the first time, and we’d be very happy to share the knowledge we gleaned from [the trial].” […]
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Activists in Hundreds of Cities Across the Globe Stage Actions Calling for Drug Policy Reform
Tuesday, activists in NYC joined with thousands of people in over 200 cities around the world as part of the “Support. Don’t Punish” Global Day of Action to demand an end to drug policies that disregard the value of human life and reduce drug use to a one-dimensional law enforcement…
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Government looks to expand pill testing in new drugs strategy
The ACT Government will look to expand pill testing at events in the ACT after the successful trial at this year’s Groovin’ the Moo Festival, and monitor safe injecting centres in other states to see if such a facility should be set up here. These are among a catalogue of…
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I lost both my sons to drugs – that’s why I want to legalise them
What Lakeman finds “impossible to get my head around” is the law’s refusal to apply the principle of harm reduction to drug use. “Every single other aspect of our lives is governed by trying to make things as safe as possible. The only thing we don’t do it with is…
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38 UN rights council members urge Philippines to stop drug war deaths
“We urge the government of the Philippines to take all necessary measures to bring killings associated with the campaign against illegal drugs to an end and cooperate with the international community to investigate all related deaths and hold perpetrators accountable,” the UNHRC member-states said in a joint statement delivered by…
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Five good reasons to decriminalise drugs
As an empathetic society, we need to separate out addiction from criminal behaviour. Yes, it’s true that addiction can be a driver of crime, but addiction itself is not – and should not be considered – criminal. By turning over resources currently used to prosecute addicts to health services who…
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Report urges Federal government to implement national pill-testing at music festivals
The harm reduction test was deemed an “overwhelming success” in the report. It explained, “The pilot demonstrated that such an intervention is possible and that people are willing to use the service, despite the limitations arising from the tight timelines, inauspicious physical infrastructure and the lack of dissemination strategies on-site…
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Pill-testing success in ACT proves it should go national, organisers say
Gino Vambuca, the president of Harm Reduction Australia, said the federal government should do “something concrete” and propose funding for a pill-testing initiative through the ministerial drug and alcohol forum, which brings together state and territory justice ministers. […]
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Canada just legalized marijuana. That has big implications for US drug policy.
If Canada pulls this off, it could provide a model for other countries to relax their drug laws — and particularly their marijuana laws — without violating international treaty obligations or, at the very least, without getting punished for disobeying the treaties. It’s not just, then, that Canada is changing…
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‘Overwhelming success’: Calls for expanding pill testing after Canberra trial
ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said the success of the pill-testing trial had shown there was demand for the service at future events. “This will assist to better understand how pill testing may help reduce the harms of illicit drug use at festivals and will inform next steps and future drug…