Former federal police commissioner and Take Control spokesperson Mick Palmer said governments must start treating drug use as a health issue if they want to reduce harm. “Locking people up who actually need healthcare doesn’t get the drug issue under control. If we are to help people, we need to rethink our approach. […]

Lord mayor Sally Capp has backed a controversial pill-testing trial in Melbourne despite Premier Daniel Andrews reiterating the government’s opposition to the proposal. “I do not endorse anyone taking illicit drugs – but in the face of evidence that people are taking these drugs we simply cannot stick our heads in the sand,” Cr Capp said. […]

I am a scientist, a chemist and a toxicologist. I’ve read the data. I’ve looked at the evidence. Part of my job is disseminating scientific evidence to the general public. So, let me disseminate: pill testing is a viable option for harm reduction in Australia. No methodology is going to be a perfect fix. […]

Delivering her findings on Friday, deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame said there was “compelling” evidence to support pill testing, which could “prompt behavioural change”. “Drug checking is simply an evidence-based harm reduction strategy that should be trialled as soon as possible in NSW,” she said. Ms Grahame said high-visibility and punitive policing operations at festivals had “inherent dangers and few…

In landmark findings published on Friday, Harriet Grahame recommended pill-testing be introduced and said she was satisfied there was “significant evidence” that “intensive and punitive drug policing operations” were increasing “drug-related risks and harm”. Drug dogs had “the capacity to cause harm without strong evidence it is effective in reducing overall drug supply”. […]

Ms Ross-King will on Friday stand beside drug law reform campaigners former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer and Matt Noffs, who are vocal backers of pill testing and decriminalisation of personal drug use. “I would expect to be sincerely urging the Premier to take the recommendations seriously, and to do everything necessary to reduce drug related harms and to…

We need a functioning and cohesive international system. As is now the case for the environment, drug policy at the multilateral level requires a “Delivering as One” UN approach, incorporating issues related to development, public health, human rights, social justice and poverty eradication, order to effectively address the primary stated concern of the 1961 treaty for “the health and welfare…

Australia has gone from being among the international leaders in drug policy to becoming something of a laggard. Even if the recommendations of this inquiry are rejected now, they will inevitably in large part be accepted at some time in the future. Many other countries are now moving in that direction. […]

Dr Morgan and Professor Jones dismissed “common arguments” against pill testing including “complaints from policy makers about lack of proven efficacy of harm reduction from pill testing; an overall feeling that pill testing condones drug use; and the fear that dealers will use pill testing results to promote their brand”. “All of these arguments can be addressed by a well-designed…

The state’s former top prosecutor has urged the Berejiklian government to decriminalise the use and possession of illicit drugs in NSW as the “first step” towards full legalisation, as the Premier maintains her opposition to overhauling drug policy to allow a pill testing trial. Nicholas Cowdery, QC, who was Director of Public Prosecutions in NSW for 16 years, said “any…