“This shouldn’t be the playing field for experimentation, just because you think it might work. Let’s listen to the experts in this area and stop doing this kind of nasty stereotyping – that the reason you’re on unemployment payments is because you’ve got a drug and alcohol addiction.” […]

VCOSS CEO Emma King told Pro Bono News “nobody with heart” could support the policy. “We applaud the Victorian Government refusal to play the Commonwealth’s cruel game,” King said. “Drug testing and then punishing vulnerable job seekers will neither find them a job nor help them get off drugs. […]

Colombia’s government dismissed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s claim that “it is necessary to resume fumigation” of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine, reported newspaper El Tiempo. Disregarding Tillerson’s opinion, the Colombian government is bound to the peace deal that allows the spraying of chemicals only as a last resort and has no intention of changing the crop substitution…

When I heard Scott Morrison’s announcement, I thought, Well, that’s welfare done. I guess I’ll be avoiding it altogether. And I know that others like me, too, will feel that burn. Maybe that’s what some people hope will happen—for “dole bludging drug addicts” to be punished. But a welfare system that penalises addicts for lapsing is one that fundamentally misunderstands…

The Victorian Government has said it will not cooperate with the Federal Government’s proposed plan to test welfare recipients for illicit drugs. “It simply won’t work, and it’s cheap, populist nonsense designed to create a smokescreen as to what really drives disadvantage,” Victoria’s Mental Health Minister Martin Foley told 7.30. […]

With the best intentions in the world, we simply cannot arrest and imprison our way out of the problem. We must be prepared to try new ideas and approaches. […]

The National Drug Research Institute says a trial of “sensible, contained and targeted drug-checking services” at Australia’s music festivals is “much-needed”. But the Curtin University-based group said this would only happen if political leaders “instruct health and law enforcement to work together and make it happen”. […]

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said testing facilities should be ‘standard’ at festivals so revellers can assess the strength and content of the drugs they are considering taking. Drug safety testing pilots at the Secret Garden Party and Kendall Calling festivals last summer, with the support of local police and public health officials, reduced the amount of potentially harmful…

No one in the field is claiming that MSICs will solve the state’s drug problem — the coroner’s report explicitly said they were not the “silver bullet” — but when displayed alongside the state’s other harm minimisation policies centred on drug use, it would seem surely seem like a natural step? […]

“South America’s war against drugs has been absurd, with catastrophic results no matter which indicators you consider, including consumption. If Uruguay’s experience turns out positive, it will be easier for other countries such as Colombia or Mexico, mired in huge problems with powerful narcos, to find a better solution than the disastrous one implemented so far.” […]