The push for a Footscray safe injecting room has received backing from Maribyrnong Council. The council has pledged to monitor the success of a two-year trial in North Richmond and is open to creating its own centre in the future, a view shared by health organisations and social workers. […]

It’s not just about allowing someone to use drugs more safely—it’s about building a trusting relationship with users, humanizing them and encouraging them to seek treatment when they’re ready. […]

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is skipping a regional summit in Australia this month, his spokesman said Monday, as he faces international censure for Manila’s deadly drug war. Duterte’s decision to snub the meeting comes after he said he would not cooperate with United Nations investigators looking into alleged extrajudicial killings during the narcotics crackdown, which has left thousands dead. […]

Controversial plans to drug test welfare recipients are back on the agenda after the coalition party room endorsed new proposed laws. The Turnbull government had originally hoped to drug test 5000 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients across three trial sites in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia from January   […]

Experts from the Finnish government’s leading health agency have called for the decriminalisation of all drug use, igniting a debate that has drawn in top politicians and police authorities. The call was made by two senior members of Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare which operates under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. […]

On February 27th, A Current Affair launched an extraordinary attack on people who are prescribed methadone. The program deliberately used stigmatising language to describe people utilising a prescribed, evidence-based medical treatment. Methadone use was described as “deadly epidemic” that is “putting everyone at risk”, without presenting the plethora of evidence of the benefits of methadone treatment. […]

President Emmanuel Macron has taken steps to reform drug laws amid concerns that France has seen a continuous rise in drug use despite having some of the strictest narcotics laws in Europe. But is the country ready for a radical new approach? […]

Britain’s “utterly failing” drug laws must be overhauled to help curb the number of inmates in overcrowded prisons, the Green Party will say, as party activists battled through harsh weather conditions to attend its spring conference in Bournemouth. […]

More than 100 drug suspects have been killed since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police to rejoin his “war on drugs”, an official said Saturday (Mar 3). Duterte was elected in 2016 on a promise to eradicate drugs, and launched an unprecedented campaign in which – rights activists allege – as many as 12,000 people have been killed. […]

“Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty,” Trump said at a White House summit on the opioid crisis. “And, by the way, they have much less of a problem. If you shoot one person, you get life in prison,” he added. “These people kill 1,000, 2,000 people and nothing happens to them.” […]