On behalf of our STA-SAFE consortium partners, Harm Reduction Australia would like to advise that the first pill testing trial to ever be held in Australia took place in Canberra on Sunday the 29th of April. Pill Testing Media Release 30 April 2018 […]

The support letter is signed by three bands on the bill, Ocean Alley, Cosmo’s Midnight and Moaning Lisa, as well as Gavin Findlay, vice-president of Music ACT and Tim Hollo, CEO of Green Music Australia. Other signatories were from Families & Friends for Drug Law Reform, Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy and The Connection, Public Health Association of…

Australia’s former top cop has slammed governments for waging a war on drugs insisting it’s failed “abysmally”. Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer has backed a Greens proposal to legalise cannabis use by adults, saying the current policy “makes no sense at all”. […]

Asked why the government wouldn’t want the tax revenue, Mr Hunt said it didn’t want to put the mental health of Australians at risk. But Senator Di Natale argues governments around the world are realising that prohibition of cannabis causes more harm than it prevents. “It’s time Australia joined them,” he said. […]

Musicians, health professionals and a Greens MLA have argued a pill-testing trial could “potentially save lives” in an open letter sent to Groovin the Moo promoters just a fortnight before the Canberra festival is held. Greens drug law reform spokesman Shane Rattenbury, three bands and 16 drug reform advocates and health stakeholders put their name to the letter urging Cattleyard Promotions…

The consortium behind plans to conduct Australia’s first legal pill-testing trial at Groovin the Moo in Canberra says it has offered the promoter legal indemnity if they are allowed to test drugs at the festival. Cattleyard Promotions are yet to agree to the drug-checking pilot despite the Canberra leg of the festival taking place on April 29. […]

Portugal has stepped up and set an example for the world. It has shown that the traditional solution to drug addiction, which was attempting to suppress through iron fist of government, is not the most moral nor efficient means of solving the problem. Hopefully, the world follows Portugal’s example and takes steps to end the 75-year-old worldwide tyranny of the…

No compassionate society should treat a health issue as a criminal one, promoting fear and isolation in the process. And no wise government would continue to expend resources on measures so plainly ineffective and counterproductive as enforcement and interdiction, when evidence-based treatment and prevention measures are at hand. […]

The problem with this reporting is that law enforcement has not been shown to be an effective means of reducing a seemingly never-ending supply of drugs. Despite this, research shows that 66% of government money allocated to addressing alcohol and other drug-related issues is spent on law enforcement, while only 21% is spent on treatment and only 9% on prevention.…

This is not about condoning or encouraging the use of drugs. It is about harm minimisation, saving lives and helping people get well. It works. This is also about public safety. The government will provide security inside and outside the centre. We urge people to keep an open mind and to judge the trial on its results. […]