On Friday, 12 October, Sir Richard Branson will officially launch a new Uniting Church campaign, calling on governments to reform Australia’s drug legislation to reflect a harm minimisation approach. The grassroots campaign calls for the decriminalisation of small amounts of currently illegal substances for personal use. The call has been spearheaded by the NSW and ACT Synod of the Uniting Church…

Senator David Leyonhjelm attended the Uniting Church’s drug summit in Sydney today, reinforcing the Liberal Democrats’ longstanding policy of decriminalising recreational drug use in Australia. “I believe we have reached a level of maturity in this country where we can move beyond policies based on fear or disapproval and embrace an evidence-based medical and harm-minimisation strategy, as sophisticated societies have…

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will today declare the war on drugs has failed, urging Australia to return to its pioneering role in drug treatment that began with the medically supervised injecting centre in Sydney’s Kings Cross. “We live in a drug-taking world. We cannot change that, and we need to be sensible and pragmatic about how we respond,” Sir…

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will today declare the war on drugs has failed, urging Australia to return to its pioneering role in drug treatment that began with the medically supervised injecting centre in Sydney’s Kings Cross. The billionaire who founded the Virgin Group will address the Uniting Fair Treatment campaign at Sydney’s Town Hall today as the federal government signals…

In order to save lives, we need safer consumption spaces (or better yet, call them “overdose prevention sites”) in areas where drug use and sales are concentrated; syringe exchange programs scaled to meet demand; and increased access to supplies like fentanyl-checking test strips. […]

The sky “did not fall in” after a decision to decriminalise drugs for personal use in Portugal, according to the vice-president of the health commission that deals with the issue in Lisbon. On Monday, a report from the Ana Liffey drug project recommended that Ireland decriminalise drugs in quantities for personal use. […]

Mr Rattenbury said he was not trying to “capitalise on the misfortune” of the Defqon deaths “We should seek to embrace an event like this for the opportunities it would bring to Canberra but also be really conscious of the risks that are involved in it and work as earnestly and as diligently as we can to minimise those risks,” Mr Rattenbury…

Illegal drugs should be decriminalised, delegates at the Plaid Cymru conference have said. Party members called the war on drugs an “unmitigated failure” and said criminalising those with an addiction does “nothing to help them turn their lives around”. Activists voted for decriminalisation to become party policy on Friday. […]

HRA welcomes our colleagues from across the world as new signatories to the Charter – including important organisations in Australia such as Family Drug Support and the ACT Greens. Trans Tasman Charter for Pill Testing – 8 Oct 2018 […]

Hundreds of angry Canberrans are expected to turn out at a weekend rally to demand the federal government reconsider its opposition to pill testing, as organisers label off-site drug-checking a “half-measure”. Reason ACT and the Smashed Avocado Movement are coordinating the Garema Place rally, which will urge governments across Australia to roll out pill testing as a harm reduction measure.…