2017 has seen a worsening opioid deaths crisis in North America, egregious brutality against people who use drugs in the Philippines, and the maintaining – or intensification – of prohibitionist drug policies in a number of countries. However, there have also been a range of progressive steps regarding harm reduction, cannabis reform, and more – all around the world. […]
2017 Articles RSS feed for this section
Where is the evidence? Crying wolf on fentanyl distracts from the real issues and prevents evidence-based policies
In recent weeks, there has been an escalation in misleading media coverage of fentanyl – a powerful synthetic opioid used in anaesthesia and to manage severe pain. This coverage could create moral panic of an imminent overdose crisis like those unfolding in Canada and the US. […]
Women and Harm Reduction: Interview with Sue Purchase
When considering the social stigma surrounding people who use drugs—as a moral failing—the harshest judgments are often directed towards women, particularly those pregnant or with children. […]
Aus govt key to Bali drug accused’s fate
Melanie O’Brien, of the University of Queensland, says the punishment Roberts will face could come down to negotiations between the Indonesian and Australian governments. Australian traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015, 10 years after their arrest as the ringleaders of a heroin smuggling operation. […]
NZ: Making drugs illegal won’t keep your child safe
This government has an opportunity to take up Peter Dunne’s legacy and move away from the failed prohibition advocated by Brown. Drugs are consumed by the most vulnerable members of our community. We owe them a duty of care. […]
Pill testing in the community?
Australian ecstasy has the highest rate in the world of unexpected ingredients, says drug law reform proponent Shane Rattenbury. Mr Rattenbury recently encouraged colleagues in the ACT’s cabinet to consider pill testing not just at music festivals such as Split Milk, but on an everyday basis within the community. […]
Mexico: murders of women rise sharply as drug war intensifies
The report from Mexico’s interior department, the country’s National Women’s Institute and the UN Women agency said the annual femicide rate was 3.8 per 100,000 women in 1985 before it began a steady decline to 1.9 in 2007. From there it rose sharply to peak at 4.6 per 100,000 in 2012, tapering off in the following years and then rising again last year to 4.4. […]
Looking Back: The Biggest Domestic Drug Policy Stories of the Past 20 Year
There are more options for treatment or diversion out of jail or prison, but people are still getting arrested. Sentencing reforms mean some people won’t do as much time as they did in the past, but people are still getting arrested. And the drug war industrial complex, with all its institutional inertia and self-interest, rolls on. […]
Dozens of Children Killed by Police in Philippines Drug War, Amnesty Says
Dozens of children have been killed by Philippines law enforcement in the last 18 months, claims Amnesty International. The group is urging the International Criminal Court to look into these deaths and bring justice to the youths wrongfully killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug crusade. […]
Drug expert says Sydney must lift its harm reduction game
As Melbourne prepares for its first trial of a Medically Supervising Injecting Centre (MSIC) next year, Sydney drug treatment expert Dr Alex Wodak AM is urging expanded harm-reduction facilities in this city to counter changes in the drug trade.
[…]
How Uruguay made legal highs work
In July this year, tiny Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalise the sale of marijuana across its entire territory. “The most important thing has been the change of paradigm,” says Gastón Rodríguez Lepera, shareholder in Symbiosis, one of the two private firms producing cannabis for the government’s Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis. […]
Government shelves plans to drug test welfare recipients, citing lack of Senate support
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Michael Gannon, welcomed the change of plan. “This has been tried in other parts of the world. There’s not a scrap of evidence that it reduces drug use in welfare recipients,” Dr Gannon said. “There’s no evidence at all that its useful in helping people get back to work.” […]
US: The pastor and ex-addict fighting to give drug users a safe place to get high
“This is not some wildcat renegade effort. It’s well planned and it’s being done by knowledgeable people based on this long experience elsewhere. That’s why we have the confidence to do this and intend to brave the storm of whatever the opposition might be.” […]
The Government Will Ditch Their Shitty Plan To Drug-Test Welfare Recipients
The Turnbull Government‘s really quite bad plan to drug-test young people in low socio-economic areas receiving welfare assistance will be mercifully put on ice, after the embattled Government failed to secure crossbench support for the controversial measures. The plan was bashed from pillar to post by just about every opposing politician, and critically a throng of leading medical and social welfare organisations, under the sun. […]
Shane Rattenbury wants pill-testing trialled somewhere other than music festivals
ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury has urged his cabinet colleagues to look at other places pill testing could take place, after the Spilt Milk music festival pulled out of an Australian-first trial. […]
What goes on inside a medically supervised injection facility?
A medically-supervised injecting centre is a physical space where it’s legal for people who inject drugs to come with pre-obtained substances and inject themselves. The key point is that rather than just being supplied with clean injecting equipment and then sent away to inject elsewhere, people are also provided with a safe space to inject. […]
What Exactly Happened With Aussie Fest Spilt Milk’s Failed Pill Testing Trial?
While it’s a debate that will surely continue for a long time from both sides of the fence, Dr Caldicott’s final point is probably a good summation of the youth vote on the issue, referring to the politicians he believes blocked the trial at this point. “This is a brilliant way of completely distancing yourself from an entire demographic of parents and young people, because it looks ridiculous and it looks foolish and it looks aged.” […]
Controversial drug trial for welfare recipients to be postponed
The trial was to have applied to new welfare recipients from January 1, 2018, but Social Services Minister Christian Porter on Wednesday indicated he was prepared to excise the trial from omnibus welfare legislation so other measures could be approved by Parliament before the end of the year. […]
UK: Durham Police to Stop Prosecuting Low Level Dealers
The controversial plan, coming into effect next month, implies the Durham police will stop prosecuting small dealers, who usually face a minimum of 18 months in prison. Instead they must agree to join a four-month Checkpoint programme that aims to tackle the underlying problems of drug use, such as financial or family problems. […]
Philippine court begins hearing arguments in petition against drugs war
In a petition filed last month, lawyers from the Free Legal Assistance Group argued the anti-drug campaign is unconstitutional because it allows police to kill suspects in the guise of “neutralising” them during raids and sting operations. […]
Victoria: Eastern Access Community Health head queries need for injecting rooms in Maroondah
The head of Eastern Access Community Health has expressed support for supervised injecting rooms, but has stopped short of calling for them to be rolled out in Maroondah. […]
Trudeau Plays Trump Foil Again With Critique of Duterte
Trudeau said after a closed-door meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte Tuesday in Manila that he raised concerns about extrajudicial killings and other alleged abuse associated with the Philippines’ drug war. The exchange came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump sidestepped the issue in his own talks with Duterte on the sidelines of a regional summit. […]
NZ PM – Drug-related killings ‘certainly require investigation’
Ms Ardern said she would urge Mr Duterte to carry out an enquiry into the high numbers of death. “There’ve been various attempts for there to be oversight into some of the executions that have occurred. Our view is that number of deaths certainly requires investigation and oversight, at the very least.” […]
Why ‘Just Say No’ To Drugs Will Never Work
As much as many of us would like to see it become a reality, there will never be a drug-free world. People who use illicit drugs do so for a multitude of complex reasons that appear immune to political interventions and ‘just say no’ slogans. Only by accepting drug use as a reality within our communities can we effectively tackle drug-related harms and ensure both individuals who use drugs, and society more broadly, remains safe and healthy. […]
Moving Away from the War on Drugs: An Interview with Dr Alex Wodak
The critics of harm reduction and drug law reform are old and shrinking in number and influence. In contrast, supporters of harm reduction and drug law reform are young, and growing in number and influence. But every battle is still tough. Ridiculous amounts of time and energy still have to be expended for modest gains. […]
The Mad Merry-Go-Round Of Starving Welfare Recipients Off Drugs
Trials of heroin-assisted treatment in countries like Switzerland have shown that “despite a difficult labour market situation, there was nearly a twofold increase in permanent employment whereas unemployment dropped to less than half.” If the Australian government is really concerned about reducing unemployment of drug dependent welfare recipients it will invest in treatments like these that stabilise lives. […]
Testing welfare recipients for drugs is wrong headed
That’s the thing, the government doesn’t really want to help the unemployed with this plan. That’s not its aim. Its aim is to win the support of those who believe the unemployed have it easy and are getting wasted on the public dime. This policy isn’t about help. It is simply cynical politics. […]
Drug consumption rooms can help reduce the harm caused by addiction
Not only do these spaces save lives, decrease the risk of users contracting HIV and other diseases and clear related paraphernalia from our streets and parks, but they also help people access support services, such a healthcare, housing and benefits. They can help people take the first step in the journey from harmful addiction to a healthier life – specifically because they provide safety from the hard hand of the law, which criminalises drug use. […]
Experts and public disagree over plan to drug-test welfare recipients – polls
HRA president, Gino Vumbaca, said the gulf between expert and public opinion showed the government and media were not properly communicating the complexities of the issue. “[Drug testing] is counter-productive, and that’s what you often find, when you talk to people who actually work in this area with knowledge of the issues,” he told Guardian Australia. […]
About time: Victorian government’s safe injecting trial will save young lives
The Victorian government’s decision to trial a supervised, safe injecting space for heroin users in inner Melbourne will save lives by preventing overdoses and by putting many addicts on a pathway to recovery. It is a welcome, though lamentably belated, reversal of a policy that has contributed to dozens of needless deaths this year alone in Richmond, where the trial will take place. […]
Daniel Andrews has change of heart on Richmond safe injecting room trial because current drug policy ‘not working’
“There can be no rehabilitation if you are dead. If you are lying in a laneway in a gutter with a syringe that you got through the needle and syringe exchange program just here, there can be no pathway to treatment for you,” Mr Andrews said. […]
Melbourne safe injecting room trial set to get the go-ahead
Victoria will trial a safe drug-injecting room in inner Melbourne in a major turnaround for Premier Daniel Andrews, after calls to set up the centre amid a growing heroin crisis in the state. Minister for Mental Health Martin Foley said Cabinet approved the proposal after a review of private members bill and after considering advice from the police, the coroner and community stakeholders. […]
State pumps extra $53 million into rehab as Yarra drug deaths surge
Expectations are growing that a reversal of Labor’s rejection of a safe injecting room in Richmond might be announced any day, with senior ministers who are in favour of the idea growing in confidence. Government sources say emergency and health services have already recorded the number of lives lost to drugs in the council area so far in 2017 at 34 “and climbing”. […]
Renewed calls for safe injecting room as Victoria’s heroin death toll reaches 16-year high
The ABC understands the high death rate is placing enormous pressure on the top levels of Government to change its position — with a potential trial of an injecting room under active consideration. […]
Andrew Laming’s opposition to pill-testing at music festivals based on inaccuracies and nonsense
A tenet of his opposition to testing pills at music festivals seems to be that the information provided to people about their drugs might not always be 100 per cent accurate. It is seemingly better to have no information if you can’t provide complete, perfectly accurate information all the time. In science, that would mean a return to the Dark Ages. […]
Decriminalising drugs ‘could be the answer’: former top cop
Former police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan says decriminalisation of small quantities of certain illicit substances could be the answer to WA’s drug problem. Mr O’Callaghan made the remarks during his first segment as a social commentator on Gareth Parker’s 6PR Morning Program, during which he also said the City of Perth needed a new substantive Lord Mayor and confirmed he had once considered a tilt at politics. […]
EU: Human rights worsened with Duterte’s drug war
U.N., Human Rights Bodies Call Welfare Drug Testing ‘Cheap Shot’ At The Poor
The government’s controversial plan to drug test welfare recipients is under fire yet again, with the United Nations’ rapporteur on human rights calling the policy a “cheap shot” that will “stigmatise” the country’s poorest and most vulnerable. […]
Promoters pull plug on pill testing trial
“It’s a setback, it’s a delay,” Harm Minimisation Australia President Gino Vumbaca tells AJP. “Canberra has a unique situation where some major areas of land are owned by the Federal Government by the National Capital Authority, which is not an independent authority. “My understanding is that the promoter was put under enormous pressure, he hadn’t had the festival – which was a sell-out – finally approved by the NCA.” […]
Crying over Spilt Milk
This is a time where we should be crying over Spilt Milk, given it means that a festival that will be occurring in our town is less safe than it could have been and our young people are at greater risk than they needed to be. We need to be honest and recognise that this is a time where fear, ideology, and oppositional party politics has again won the day, and we have failed to keep our young people safer. […]
A Spilt Milk Pill Tester Explains How Things Went So Wrong
Dr David Caldicott is an emergency room doctor in Canberra who has been campaigning for pill testing and harm reduction in Australia more than a decade. Here he gives his account of how the much-lauded pill testing pilot at Canberra’s Spilt Milk music festival got cancelled. […]
Feds’ festival intervention bitter pill for ACT Government
Minister for Justice and Consumer Affairs, and Mental Health, Shane Rattenbury has accused the Canberra Liberals of undermining the ACT’s democratic processes and endangering public health by using their Federal counterparts to force the cancellation of the pioneering pill-testing trial at next month’s Spilt Milk music festival in Commonwealth Park. […]
Why the government’s ‘draconian’ welfare bill must be voted down
Surely it is time for Australia to abandon its punitive approach to people struggling with illicit drug problems. This should include rejecting the draconian Welfare Reform Bill in its entirety. […]
Pill testing advocates blame federal intervention for Spilt Milk trial cancellation
Advocates, academics and the ACT Greens claim federal intervention could be behind Thursday’s “shock” decision to shelve an Australian-first pill testing trial at Canberra’s Spilt Milk Festival. […]
Pill Testing At Spilt Milk Festival Reportedly Won’t Be Happening
While the trial was heralded as a win for harm reduction among festival patrons, Gino Vumbaca, the president and co-founder of Harm Reduction Australia — the parent body behind STA-SAFE — confirmed to HuffPost Australia that the advisory body had only been made aware by the NCA of additional documentation requirements on Wednesday, and then 24 hours later were told it had missed the deadline […]
Pill testing advocate says ‘pressure’, not lack of documentation, to blame for abandoned Spilt Milk trial
“I think what’s happened is that there has been pressure placed upon a promoter, who’s a small businessman, and I think that’s probably where the root of the problem lies,” Dr Caldicott said […]
Pill Testing Blocked – HRA Media Release
Prohibition doesn’t work… what does “working” mean
We know that proponents of prohibition have asserted that its overall objective is to reduce drug use. And we know that this is why it is ultimately ineffective, because drug use has shown no signs of a decrease in the 40-plus years since the war on drugs was declared, and this is evidenced in expanding drug markets […]
ACT music festival drug testing decision is both defensible and long overdue
By opening the door to the possibility of a national testing regime that will indicate if a drug is potentially lethal before it is consumed the ACT Government has done much to drag Australia’s drug risk management policies into the 21st century. […]
Govt MP urges treatment-first drugs policy
A federal government MP, known for his conservative views, wants a rethink on how the justice system treats illicit drug users. Liberal MP Craig Kelly says Portugal has had “remarkable results” since it changed from treating minor drug use as a criminal issue to a health issue in 2001. […]
Duterte’s ‘drug war’ is fueling the spread of disease
President Rodrigo Duterte’s “drug war” has left thousands dead at the hands of police, but it is also threatening lives in a different way. Front-line advocates in this city in the central Philippines say the violent anti-drug campaign is pushing users ever further underground, fueling the spread of disease by stopping efforts to get them clean needles. […]
New calls to change approach to drug abuse
David Grant, the Penington Institute’s acting CEO says the survey’s findings further highlight Australia’s existing “war on drugs” approach to addiction isn’t working. “We need to treat drug use and addiction for what it is – a serious community health issue with widespread implications for our society,” he said. […]
Philippines drug war alarms 39 countries in UN
In a joint statement delivered by Iceland through representative Högni Kristjánsson on Thursday, the countries noted that the human rights situation in the Philippines continues to be of serious concern, particularly in the light of killings associated with the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. The states called on the Philippines “to cooperate with the international community to pursue appropriate investigations into these incidents, in keeping with the universal principles of democratic accountability and the rule of law.” […]
Law Enforcement Isn’t The Way To Stop Most Drug-Related Deaths In Australia
The Australian Bureau of Statistics data are worrying, but they can also serve as a massive wake-up call that we need to change the way we operate. The history of harm reduction advocates breaking the rules to make change has had positive results for people who use drugs and the wider community. […]
Australians want more spent on drug education and treatment – survey
Australians prefer harmful drug use to be tackled using education and treatment instead of law enforcement to a greater degree than they did three years ago, the latest results from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey show. […]
Pill Testing At Spilt Milk Is A Huge Win For Harm Reduction
In a landmark decision the ACT Government has allowed a pill testing service to operate at Canberra’s Spilt Milk festival this November. This service is the first of its kind to ever occur in Australia. It is groundbreaking. By allowing it to happen, Chief Minister Andrew Barr and the ACT Government have elevated Australia to a small list of mainly European countries, some of which have had pill testing for years. […]
ACT government’s decision to allow a pill testing trial at Spilt Milk festival is a good one
The ACT government has made a courageous decision to proceed with a pill testing trial at a music festival in the territory. While the nation’s capital is thought of as one of the more progressive jurisdictions in the country it is still nonetheless a big step to green light such a proposal. […]
ACT Government announces pill testing
Police support injecting room in Melbourne
‘Heroin overdoses are predominantly a health issue that commonly cause death and leave our members and other emergency service workers frequently picking up the pieces when lives are tragically lost,’ union secretary Wayne Gatt said on Monday. The union said a trial for safe injecting rooms – like the one at Sydney’s Kings Cross – would not affect police operations. […]
Fact check: Is there evidence that mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients can help drug users get off welfare?
Mr Porter’s claim is wishful thinking. Of six reports put forward by Mr Porter’s office in defence of his claim, only two specifically relate to drug testing of welfare recipients and both strongly reject it as a viable strategy. The other four relate to the drug treatment of offenders in the criminal justice system. […]
Drug-testing welfare recipients an ‘absolute disgrace’, Australian of the Year says
McGorry is the latest prominent Australian to voice his concern about the measure, which will see 5,000 welfare recipients drug tested at three trial locations. He has warned the policy fails to understand the intersection between mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction. The consequence will be to drive vulnerable Australians with a mental health issue away from the welfare system, and most likely into homelessness. […]
Until my son became dependent, drugs weren’t part of my world. I hope they’re never part of yours
If someone is addicted to drugs and you take away their ability to spend money on drugs, will they stop using?No, they will find other criminal ways to score, break and enters or dealing drugs. That’s why I’m naming this bill “desperate measures”, because that’s what it will induce in our community. […]
A medically supervised injection facility matters for Victoria – and for more inclusive mental health support
The many people who died from preventable heroin overdoses were members of a Melbourne community – and their lives mattered. We can choose to be the kind of community that supports each other when people are struggling and need help. Now we need to make sure that establishing a medically supervised injection centre in North Richmond remains a priority, and becomes an essential part of a more welcoming and inclusive Melbourne. […]
Drug testing welfare recipients is about money not love
The personal cost and harm of this policy is much more obvious than the love. We know that risky alcohol and drug use are closely linked to living in remote and disadvantaged areas. Being marginalised and disadvantaged leads to increased drug and alcohol use, not the other way around. Targeting already marginalised people in this blunt way will only increase disadvantage and social isolation. […]
Inquiry denies proposal for safe injection room in North Richmond
Harm Reduction Australia executive officer Greg Denham said a safe injecting room would not only save lives but would also improve the amenity of the area around North Richmond. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Cameron Loy said injecting drugs was a health issue. He said North Richmond Community Health Centre dealt with one fifth of drug overdoses in the state. […]
Australian Doctors Clash With Government Over Drug Testing for Welfare Recipient
Hundreds of Australian doctors and health-care workers have signed an open letter to the federal government asking officials not to implement mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients. […]
NT Government may move to decriminalise drugs in bid to tackle health issue, assistant minister says
Prohibiting the use of drugs in the Northern Territory has failed, Assistant Minister Jeff Collins says, and he will push the Government to look at decriminalising personal use quantities of drugs. […]
Staying in The Loop: the organisation testing drugs, one festival at a time
Critics of The Loop and other similar services often lobby the accusation that drug testing facilitates drug use. But the results speak for themselves – around 20 per cent of the people who choose to get their drugs tested turn the rest in, and many who do are in possession of the most dangerous samples. […]
Drug testing welfare recipients a ‘tick a box’ exercise that can never work
Already treatment services are full and clinicians are fully occupied. There is the idea that one might be able to purchase a treatment place for someone out of the schedules in this welfare reform bill. All that will mean is that someone else will miss out on a treatment place, someone who perhaps is motivated to seek treatment. […]
Drug testing welfare recipients will only result in more drug dealing
This is an attack on poor areas by the rich. It is lopsided. Oh, and speaking of rich people — did I mention that while ice is on the decrease, cocaine is on the up? Where, among other places? Canberra. You heard correctly. Canberrans use more cocaine than most Australians. So if we’re going to drug test people, let’s drug test everyone on the taxpayer purse. […]
Plan to drug test welfare recipients will ‘increase crime and drive social division’, say medical
Nearly 1000 doctors, nurses, addiction specialists and allied health professionals are pressuring the Senate crossbench to reject the Turnbull government’s plan to drug-test welfare recipients. The medical professionals – who have more than 20,000 years combined practical experience – have signed an open letter saying there is no evidence to suggest the policy will work and will not help people with drug addictions […]
Welfare drug test trial announced for Mandurah prompts fears of ‘devastating’ fallout
Mental health issues and substance abuse could rise in Western Australia if a plan to drug test jobseekers goes ahead, a National Drug Research Institute professor has warned. NDRI Professor Edward Wilkes said the intended testing was “punitive” and targeted those who were among the most disadvantaged is society. […]
Rally urges government to back safe injection rooms for Richmond
Hundreds of Richmond residents have called on the Andrews government to reconsider its opposition to safe injecting rooms following the deaths of 34 drug addicts in the laneways of North Richmond last year. But Premier Daniel Andrews again refused to budge on the issue, which could play a key role in the battle with the Greens for the seat of Richmond at next year’s election. […]
Why safe drug-consumption rooms make more sense than testing welfare recipients
Given the huge amount of taxpayers money spent on drug law enforcement – with few results – and the manifest benefits of such safe and effective facilities, it is high time that Australian governments show a capacity for nimbleness and innovation by opening a network of drug-consumption rooms where they are most needed. […]
More than a thousand join funeral procession for slain Philippine teen Kian Loyd delos Santos
Mourners, some of them wearing white shirts displaying the words “Justice for Kian,” held flowers and small flags, and placards denouncing the killing, as the procession including vans and motorbikes moved out of delos Santos’ home in Caloocan city. […]
Coalition warned drug dealing will rise if testing of welfare recipients goes ahead
The head of Australia’s largest youth drug and alcohol rehabilitation service has warned the government’s plan to test welfare recipients will force more people into drug dealing. “That’s why this is a stupid, stupid idea that is not based on evidence but is based on someone not looking at the literature and pretending they have the answers,” the chief executive of the Ted Noffs Foundation, Matt Noffs, told Guardian Australia. […]
How to help young people minimise drug harm
This is entirely about harm minimisation, not hypocrisy or wowserism. The Age has long argued the “war on drugs” has failed dismally and that regulation and education, rather than prohibition, would, as it has elsewhere, save lives, reduce drug use and cut crime. […]
Spy boss accused of showing ‘tacit support’ for Philippines drug murders in photo with Rodrigo Duterte
“I think a picture like this really does tend to sort of suggest Australia’s tacit support for these killings,” Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson said. “It’s sickening the head of Australia’s spy agency would pose for a photo effectively fist-pumping a leader who has instigated the killing of thousands of people in the so-called war on drugs. […]
If Heroin Assisted Treatment Works, Why Isn’t Australia Providing It To Those In Need?
The pain, harm and suffering endured by so many people, families and friends is so much greater than any monetary figure we can assign. This is why it is important to think about the lives of severely dependent people who use heroin and how this treatment may change all that. […]
Government announces Canterbury Bankstown as first location for controversial drug testing trial
Opposition spokeswoman for human services Linda Burney has called the decision to begin drug testing welfare recipients in Canterbury-Bankstown ”an attack on southwest Sydney”. “There is no medical evidence to support this trial. It will only create further poverty, homelessness and crime,” Ms Burney said. […]
Death of Philippine Teenager Stokes Opposition to Duterte’s Drug Crackdown
Kian Loyd delos Santos, 17, is just one of thousands of Filipinos shot and killed by the police since President Rodrigo Duterte began a sweeping crackdown on drugs last year. But the youth’s death last week in Caloocan City, outside Manila, has had an effect that no other police killing has: The Senate, though dominated by allies of the president, has opened an investigation. […]
People who think punitive measures help drug addicts haven’t seen what I have
Australia is better than this. We have tried punishing people struggling with severe drug problems for half a century and it hasn’t worked. When people are down, don’t push them down even further: help them to get up. These proposals are exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. […]
Vic drug inquiry considers injecting rooms
Supervised injection rooms, legalising cannabis, and whether or not illicit drugs should be decriminalised will be up for discussion at a Victorian inquiry into drug law reform. Students for Sensible Drug Policy Australia have recommended the decriminalisation of drug use and possession. The group wants the state government to legalise recreational cannabis and say it should be regulated like alcohol, according to their written submission. […]
Human rights campaigners fear returning to the Philippines after Duterte’s threats
Amnesty International Campaign Manager Michael Hayworth said pressure needs to be put on the United Nations to mount an independent investigation into human rights abuses in the Philippines. “The Australia government along with other governments in the region can send a loud and clear message to President Duterte that this sort of behaviour, these killings are completely unacceptable” he said. […]
Philippine churches to ring bells to protest killings under Duterte’s crackdown on drugs
A Philippine Catholic leader said Sunday that church bells will be rung every night for three months across his northern district to raise the alarm over a sharp spike in police killings of drug suspects, adding to a growing outcry over President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown. […]
Addiction Experts Beg Government To Scrap Welfare Drug Tests
Some of Australia’s foremost experts on addiction have pleaded for the federal government to scrap its controversial plan to drug test welfare recipients, saying the program’s negative impacts far outweigh its benefits and that it will further swamp an already struggling treatment sector. […]
How to help people do drugs safely: let them know what they’re really taking
One in five of the people who had their drugs tested chose to voluntarily hand over more drugs for disposal because they weren’t comfortable taking them after the consultation. And it has provided Measham – who researches trends in recreational drug taking – valuable data about the changing way Brits are getting intoxicated to help them do it more safely. […]
Furore erupts over killing of teenager as Philippines drugs war escalates
The Philippines police came under pressure on Friday to explain the killing of a high-school student after the 17-year-old became one of at least 80 people shot dead this week in an escalation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s ruthless war on drugs. Witnesses told the ABS-CBN channel that the teenager did not have a firearm and police officers at the scene handed him a gun, asked him to fire the weapon and run. […]
Deaths rise among Indonesian drug dealers amid fears of Philippines-style campaign
The number of suspected drug dealers killed by Indonesian police has more than tripled so far this year from the whole of 2016, activists said on Wednesday, raising concerns the country may be headed towards a bloody Philippines-style war on narcotics. […]
32 killed in Phil drug war’s bloodiest day
The intensity of the crackdown has alarmed the international community, and activists and human rights groups say police have been executing suspects and planting drugs and guns at crime scenes. “There were 32 killed in Bulacan in a massive raid, that’s good,” Duterte said in a speech. […]
HelpNotHarm: but what about rights?
Wodak, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, said he was “stunned” by the decision to “strip people with alcohol and drug problems of income support payments”. For many people who use drugs, or are aware of the reality outside of the dominant narrative, this policy proposal is hardly shocking. […]
Just say ‘know’ to drugs: can testing facilities make festivals safer?
A growing number of festivals are now openly discussing a new approach to drugs, based on information and harm reduction rather than criminal justice. This shift in attitudes is coming at a very welcome time. Recent developments in the European drug market have seen an unprecedented rise in the strength of ecstasy tablets, with a number of recent reports of adverse health effects, including emergency medical treatment and fatalities, attributed to MDMA toxicity. […]
NZ’s Ross Bell: Police are not telling us enough about this killer drug
The people taking these cheap, poisonous products are largely young, poor and marginalised, and they’re not being protected. Wealthy, middle-aged people take plenty of drugs too, it’s just that they can afford better ones. We can’t keep relying on “just say no” as a model, it’s irresponsible. Our job as a caring society is to seek to mitigate and reduce harms by developing emergency response systems, getting mature legislation in place and addressing the underlying causes of drug use. […]
Labor to oppose Coalition’s plan for drug testing of new welfare recipients
Labor will oppose the Turnbull government’s plan to drug test new welfare recipients on Newstart and Youth Allowance.The proposal provoked an outcry from the welfare sector, which labelled it a demonisation of those on social security. A Melbourne University drug expert, Assoc Prof John Fitzgerald, described the policy as “wacky”. […]
Malaysia moves closer to scrapping mandatory death penalty for drug traffickers
“While the announcement for changes to the mandatory death penalty in its limited form to drug trafficking is a welcome move, it must only be considered a first step towards total abolition,” Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu, executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, said in a statement. […]
Have we seen a reduction in the use of illicit drugs as a result of spending on law enforcement?
Funding punitive law enforcement targeting drug use and related social harms, rather than redirecting that funding towards addressing the other underlying causal factors for drug use and dependency in the first place, simply buries the problem under increasing amounts of government expenditure but never truly improves it. […]
Prescription opioid epidemic coming to Australia
Much of American policy is designed to stop the flow of illicit drugs, which Dr Wodak said was close to useless in countries such as the United States and Australia, which have large borders. To address the growing problem, Dr Wodak made six recommendations, including increasing the availability of medical cannabis in Australia. […]
Tasmania: Time for a new tack on drug fight
Tasmania needs to listen to the experts — retired judges, magistrates, police commissioners, health experts and ex-premiers — and reorient resources towards preventing addiction. We need to intervene early, educate, fund more drug treatment programs and court mandated diversions, and decriminalise the personal use of drugs. […]
The real story of how ice is killing Australians isn’t found in scary headlines
Speaking of crime, what impact has ice had on rates of violent crime? A big one, according to the media. However, the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reports a recent downward trend in crimes such as robbery — down by 63 per cent since 2000 — which wasn’t the case during the heroin crisis of the 1990s, arguably the last time we were this concerned about an illicit drug. […]
Tas drug legalisation backed by ex-judge
A report calling on the Tasmanian government to decriminalise illegal drugs and invest more money in treatment services has the backing of a former chief magistrate. Community Legal Centres Tasmania on Monday released a study advocating a health-based approach to tackle the state’s “failing” war on drugs. […]