RMIT University legal studies lecturer Dr Peta Malins said sniffer dogs ultimately failed to fulfil their purpose of striking the heart of the underground drug trade. Instead of catching dealers, they catch low-level users who might bring a single joint or a pill to a yearly festival. “The key thing I found is drug dogs are not deterring people from…

GP and addiction medicine specialist Dr Paul Grinzi told newsGP the new bill may still worsen outcomes in the longer term. ‘The Minister fails to understand that living with an addiction brings about issues of blame, stigma and shame,’ he said. ‘Drug testing these vulnerable members of our community is only going to perpetuating these issues, not “assist” in any sort of…

There is hope. Both academia and the legal profession have long declared that the war on drugs was lost. In 2011 a Law Commission review recommended the government repeal the Misuse of Drugs Act and create a new act under the ministry of health. The commission argued in favour of a health-based approach, particularly in cases with a strong element of addiction.…

Mr Loewenstein said there was growing worldwide evidence of the benefits an end to the prohibition of illicit drugs would bring. One example was a 2018 Harvard University study that found legalising drugs and instead taxing and regulating their sales would save governments in the United States alone US$106.7 billion each year. […]

“Pill testing services never condones drug use, and it reduces the potential for tragic outcomes and harms for the people taking risks,” Vumbaca said. “It is a health and medical service, and as members of the community and parents we should always be seeking to make sure that young people are kept safe and return home after a night out,…

Experts say the practice is legally questionable due to restrictions on anyone but a medical practitioner conducting a body cavity search. Research suggests the overwhelming majority of drug dog searches are also fruitless; more often than not, no drugs are found, yet those stopped are still made to endure procedures such as strip searches and “squat and cough” tests many…

Pill Testing Australia co-founder Gino Vumbaca said he would provide an explanation on how pill-testing services operated and provide evidence to support a trial in Tasmania. “For many, using pill testing services will be the first opportunity for them to talk to a health professional about their drug use and in some cases will lead to them deciding not to…

To be clear, the message we always give to every person using our service is simple – if you do not want to encounter drug-related harm the safest way to ensure that is not to use drugs – if they still choose to use the drug after the comprehensive consultation with our analytical, medical and brief intervention teams, then we…

While other jurisdictions struggle to get the elements in place to even run a trial, here in the ACT we must contemplate how we make this regular and routine. The report unsurprisingly makes calls for regular pill testing to be part of other music festivals, as well as delivering pill testing in other settings including the idea of a permanent…

Dr David Caldicott, an emergency physician with a special interest in toxicology who co-authored the PTA report, told newsGP he was extremely pleased with the findings. He believes a key value of pill testing lies in the opportunity it provides for face-to-face education. ‘I think it provides more evidence that the process of pill testing does what it claims to do, in…