• ‘Never meant to happen’: the fear and failure behind NSW’s drug deaths

    “The idea of believing that saying to young people in possession of drugs ‘just say no’ is an effective message represents either a phenomenal misunderstanding of how the adolescent mind works, or just a lack of concern,” the emergency doctor and pill-testing advocate David Caldicott said this week. […]

  • Government’s welfare drug-testing plans will end in disaster

    “A drug testing pilot would have delivered an ineffective, expensive and harmful regime that would have hindered, not helped Australians struggling with addiction,” noted Associate Professor Adrian Reynolds, President of the Royal Australian College of Physician’s Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine, in a celebratory statement when the proposal was first dropped. […]

  • Parents warn of more music festival drug deaths as inquest begins

    “So called recreational drug use will not magically disappear. In fact, in all likelihood, it will get a whole lot worse. Just saying don’t do it, we must all now agree, isn’t working. This is a health management issue. People are dying. I’m 100 per cent certain that if our son knew the risks, he wouldn’t have taken the steps…

  • Festival overdose victim took multiple pills before event ‘to avoid police detection’

    In Ross-King’s case, counsel assisting the inquest Peggy Dwyer said, the presence of police at the festival appeared to be a direct cause for her decision to “double dose” or “double dropping”; taking more than one pill at once, something she said was common. Studies in Australia have shown that almost half of people who used ecstasy at a festival had…

  • NSW music festival deaths inquest begins

    Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame will preside over the two weeks of hearings. She said: “They could be any young people who go to music festivals and partake in drugs as many young people do. These are our young people … and we owe them a proper investigation of the circumstances in which they died.” […]

  • Druggie zombie junkies, and the language battle at the heart of our attitudes towards addiction

    The roots of stigmatising language lie not just in fear but in judgements we make about other people. Many people view problem drug use as self-inflicted or an individual error of judgement. Addiction and dependency don’t develop randomly, key ingredients are needed to amplify the risk. Trauma, mental health problems, poverty and social disadvantage all contribute. […]

  • Let’s Drug Test Politicians Before Going After Welfare Recipients

    You want to make a real difference, then start at the top: obliterate anyone from the political class who tests positive for drugs, recreational or otherwise. Give the flick to anyone caught wrongly using entitlements. Give the publicly funded, house-owning, raise-getting, multiple mistake-making political class no opportunities for slip-ups because, quite frankly, they don’t deserve them. […]

  • The Case For Legalizing All Drugs

    Put simply, there is no legitimate or moral claim for maintaining prohibition today that can be backed by evidence, while centuries of evidence can show that prohibition is not only a racist, costly failure, but a direct cause of more harm than drug use could ever create. […]

  • It’s High Time to Decriminalise Drugs

    NSW Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann outlined that the ice inquiry has heard compelling evidence from numerous experts. This includes the Public Defenders Office, which noted in its submission that former law enforcement officials have stated, “Australia cannot arrest its way out of the methamphetamine problem”. “A decriminalised model would ensure people are able to seek help when they need it by diverting…

  • Grieving parents call for national pill testing after son’s death

    The parents of a Brisbane boy lost to drugs at a music festival want pill testing introduced nationwide. Josh Tam’s parents have urged the Coroner to introduce pill testing at music festivals right across the country.”Provide them with a choice whether or not this is a good thing for them,” said Julie. […]