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…

Dr Wodak said the question should not be “is pill-testing perfect?” but “is pill-testing better than no pill-testing? In public health and harm reduction it’s important to ‘never let the best be the enemy of the good’. In other words, we shouldn’t oppose pill-testing because it won’t stop every death, as long as it saves some lives,” he said. […]

Evidence suggests that zero tolerance policies do not work and pill‐testing provides a useful tool for both direct harm reduction through the identification of dangerous illicit drugs containing new psychoactive substances or unusual dosages, as well as indirect harm reduction through the increased education of a hard‐to‐reach group of drug users. […]

The personal use of ice and other illicit drugs would be decriminalised in NSW under a public health-focused drug policy backed by lawyers assisting the special commission of inquiry into ice. Under the potential recommendations of the inquiry, pill testing would also be trialled and the use of medically supervised drug consumption rooms would be expanded in NSW. […]

To refute the benefits of harm minimisation in terms of pill testing is not just dangerously irresponsible, it is quite frankly, embarrassing.  Premier Gladys Berejiklian is clearly putting politics before the lives of (mostly) young Australians by blocking pill testing.  Let alone ignoring the recommendations of the Deputy Coroner.  This is irrefutable.  […]