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…

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. […]

“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. […]

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. […]

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. […]

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…

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. […]

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…

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. […]

 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. […]