The underlying reasons for a new policy direction are critically important and, on that, many well-intentioned newcomers to the chorus are somewhat off key. The central cause for drug law reform is not its relevance to health or the present public health catastrophe. It is a matter of correcting a social injustice. […]

The grieving mother of festivalgoer Alex Ross-King is appealing to parents to ‘‘have a conversation with your kids that accepts reality’’ in a social media campaign about harm minimisation and drugs. Jennie Ross-King, whose 19-year-old daughter died after consuming almost three MDMA capsules, said the campaign was aimed at arming parents with information she wished she’d known before the Central…

A NSW coroner has called for a second medically supervised injecting room in Sydney, saying politics shouldn’t stand in the way of “sound health policy” after a young man died of a heroin overdose in a hospital toilet. Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame said Amaru Bestrin, 25, who cleaners discovered more than 10 hours after he locked himself in the…

The evaluation confirms that the Australian front of house pill testing model developed by Pill Testing Australia reduces the harm for people that may engage in drug use at festivals. It also vindicates our own belief and confidence in the model we can deliver. Media-Release-10th-Dec-2019-2Download […]

Dr Caldicott said health policy should be based on research, not opinion. “Telling young people not to take drugs is about as useful as telling them not to have sex before marriage,” he said. “We obviously need to do something new because we have a whole generation of young people ignoring what they are being told and a wide variety…

The criminalisation of illicit drugs is causing more harm than good, a prominent former judge has said, calling for criminal offences relating to personal drug possession to be abolished. […]

Over the coming months, music festivals will face much higher scrutiny than ever before, particularly in light of findings of last year’s coronial inquest. The NSW government remains under increasing pressure to change its current tactics for policing drugs at music festivals, particularly its stance on pill-testing as a harm minimisation measure, which it has steadfastly refused to consider. […]

Pill Testing Ambassador & Community Service Announcementhttps://mailchi.mp/350223bc99ce/media-announcement-2nd-december-2243025 […]

A year-long parliamentary inquiry in Western Australia has recommended that pill-testing be introduced in the state and sniffer dogs be dispensed with. It follows a similar call in New South Wales in spring and current pushes in Victoria and Tasmania. This weekend marked serious alarm as summer kicked off with one death and numerous overdoses in festivals along the East…

There is an unfair expectation on music festivals to go beyond what any police force or government have been able to do and stamp out drugs. And yet authorities refuse to listen to the evidence and expertise of the nation’s health bodies, the NSW coroner, the many parents of those who have died, and recently the City of Melbourne. […]