The ACT Government will look to expand pill testing at events in the ACT after the successful trial at this year’s Groovin’ the Moo Festival, and monitor safe injecting centres in other states to see if such a facility should be set up here. These are among a catalogue of harm-minimisation measures in a  new three-year Drug Strategy Action Plan…

What Lakeman finds “impossible to get my head around” is the law’s refusal to apply the principle of harm reduction to drug use. “Every single other aspect of our lives is governed by trying to make things as safe as possible. The only thing we don’t do it with is drugs. […]

“We urge the government of the Philippines to take all necessary measures to bring killings associated with the campaign against illegal drugs to an end and cooperate with the international community to investigate all related deaths and hold perpetrators accountable,” the UNHRC member-states said in a joint statement delivered by Iceland on June 19. […]

As an empathetic society, we need to separate out addiction from criminal behaviour. Yes, it’s true that addiction can be a driver of crime, but addiction itself is not – and should not be considered – criminal. By turning over resources currently used to prosecute addicts to health services who can treat addiction, as a society we are sending a…

The harm reduction test was deemed an “overwhelming success” in the report. It explained, “The pilot demonstrated that such an intervention is possible and that people are willing to use the service, despite the limitations arising from the tight timelines, inauspicious physical infrastructure and the lack of dissemination strategies on-site during the festival.” […]

Gino Vambuca, the president of Harm Reduction Australia, said the federal government should do “something concrete” and propose funding for a pill-testing initiative through the ministerial drug and alcohol forum, which brings together state and territory justice ministers. […]

If Canada pulls this off, it could provide a model for other countries to relax their drug laws — and particularly their marijuana laws — without violating international treaty obligations or, at the very least, without getting punished for disobeying the treaties. It’s not just, then, that Canada is changing its own drug laws. […]

ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said the success of the pill-testing trial had shown there was demand for the service at future events. “This will assist to better understand how pill testing may help reduce the harms of illicit drug use at festivals and will inform next steps and future drug policy,” she said. […]

New York moved a significant step closer to legalizing recreational marijuana, as a study commissioned by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will recommend that the state allow adults to consume marijuana legally, the governor’s health commissioner said on Monday. […]

Pill Testing Pilot Report Media Release 20 June 2018 […]