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NSW Police drug-detection dogs incorrectly detect illicit substances on patrons 75 per cent of the time, raising questions about the efficacy of enforcement as the state’s festival season starts. […]

Victorian public health experts have warned an influx of the opioid fentanyl will result in thousands of overdoses due to the state’s ill-equipped drug therapy system. […]

Harm Reduction Australia has offered to run a free pill testing trial at any festival of the NSW government’s choosing, but has been told no decisions will be made until after a drug summit. […]

The journey to establish an overdose prevention service – also known as a supervised injecting room – in Melbourne’s CBD started 25 years ago. The first injecting room in the CBD was proposed in the mid-1990s attracting widespread support from the community, health sector and the then Kennett government, but failed to materialise. […]

When I first left the bench, I was approached by a group of enthusiastic, committed young medicinal cannabis entrepreneurs and activists to lead DriveChange – a lobby group for the driving rights of patients. […]

Advocates for drug testing have called on NSW Premier Chris Minns to introduce it ahead of the busy Summer festival season – ABC […]

David Heilpern Interview – calls have emerged for reforms to address the lack of valid impairment tests for people on medical cannabis at work. […]

In recent weeks, the debate over the laws has heated up. While it is unknown what effect the reforms will have on drug use, here’s what the law says. […]

This is the spot where Professor Mal McLeod goes quietly about the business of saving lives in the Canberra region, though the analytical chemist is slow to embrace the lifesaver tag. […]

Annie Madden is the executive director of Harm Reduction Australia, an advocacy organisation focused on reducing potential harms from both drug use and drug policies and laws. […]

7 News Report […]

Join us in calling on the Victorian Government to open a CBD supervised injecting service to save lives and connect people to the supports they need […]

Criminalisation pushes people to the margins of society, stigmatises people, it cuts them off from supports, like housing and jobs, and it stops them from seeking help […]

CanTEST, which has been operating for about a year in Canberra’s CBD, is free and open to anyone who wants to know the contents of their pills or drugs. […]

A new La Trobe University study shows majority support for drug checking services with 56 per cent of the over 18,000 respondents supporting related policies. […]

Legalise Cannabis MPs are launching a coordinated push to make marijuana legal for personal use in three states and overhaul what the party says is outdated legislation that unnecessarily criminalises people. […]

HRA Submission

According to Dr Jennifer Schumann, overprescribing is leading to unused opioids in the home that can lead to accidental addiction and, tragically, overdose.  […]

Jennifer Schumann – Harm Reduction Australia & Pill Testing Australia colleague […]

Mal McLeod – lead analyst for Pill Testing Australia […]

Legalising cannabis in Western Australia could see the state’s fortunes boosted by $243.5 million per year in the first five years, according to a report from the University of Western Australia.    […]

HRA Media Release 23 Feb 2023

Drive Change is launching this campaign to focus on lobbying relevant law enforcement stakeholders to push for fair and equal drug-driving laws for patients who are legally prescribed medicinal cannabis.

[…]

Those comments prompted a rebuke from David Caldicott, an emergency doctor and one of the architects of the ACT’s CanTest program, the country’s first dedicated pill-testing regime. […]

Dean of Law at Southern Cross University and campaign lead for Drive Change, David Heilpern, urged Police Minister Joe Szakacs to allow an amendment for people with a THC prescription from a doctor. […]

Almost 17,000 Australians have used a life-saving drug that treats opioid overdoses, but experts say more awareness is needed that the drug is safe, free and does not require a prescription. […]

As South Australia nears the summit of our summer calendar of sweltering music and arts festivals, one Greens politician is encouraging the State Government to consider setting up a trial clinic that would test drugs and ensure party peoples’ safety. […]

Transcript Excerpt

The ex-police officer turned drug law reformist further points out that Oregon has recently adopted the Portuguese model, while down in Canberra a bill is currently before ACT parliament, which aims to decriminalise the personal possession and use of illicit drugs in our nation’s capital. “It takes tremendous courage to admit that the war on drugs has failed and that unless new approaches are adopted the situation will get progressively worse,” Denham concluded. […]

International examples of success, growing public support and the clear failure of current laws to stop drug use means the time is right now for drug law reform, said the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), today launching a new policy report into Australian drug laws. “We need to legalise and regulate drug use in Australia to save lives,” said Greg Barns SC, criminal justice spokesperson, ALA. […]

Policies that focus on reducing harm and providing treatment, education, and prevention, not punishment, can prevent problematic drug use and heal those dependent on drugs, without involving the criminal justice system. Apart from its other benefits, developing a health-based approach to drug addiction might just allow the criminal justice system to focus its talents and resources on organised crime and illegal drug traffickers and manufacturers, rather than locking away users – often the people who are in most need of help […]

A suspicion that someone is concealing drugs in their body cavities is not enough to justify a strip search, the state’s police watchdog has said in its final report on the invasive practice. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission said the reason used by some officers during a recent inquiry had no “logical basis” as a strip search wouldn’t enable police to remove the drugs anyway. […]

I fear I will never see humane drug laws that are based on research and evidence. I fear I will not live to see people who have problematic drug use treated with justice, understanding and compassion. I fear I am unlikely to see criminal sanctions for drug use replaced with a more appropriate, non-judgmental health response. […]

ACT MLA Michael Pettersson is yet again championing the harm reduction approach to illicit substances. This time the Labor backbencher has initiated an investigation into the feasibility of decriminalising the use and personal possession of “drugs of dependence” in the capital territory. And what makes this development so significant is that when Pettersson moved his successful motion to launch a parliamentary inquiry into decriminalisation, Labor, Greens and Liberal MPs all spoke in favour of the approach. […]

“The ACT Greens are pleased today to have secured a commitment from our Government colleagues to extend pill-testing from only music festivals to a more regular weekend service in the city, this Summer, informed by expert health advice,” ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said today. […]

Regulation is not utopia in Australia. Instead, it’s a pragmatic approach to taking control of a situation that’s taking too many young lives. The NSW premier has an opportunity to change the state for the better. To create a healthier and safer society where harms to our children are reduced and lives are saved. […]

On Thursday the government released the four-volume report and its interim response a month after the inquiry’s findings were delivered by Commissioner Professor Dan Howard. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the government would not support the inquiry’s recommendations to open more medically supervised injecting centres, run needle and syringe programs in prisons, allow consumer substance testing (more commonly known as pill testing) and stop using drug detection dogs. […]

Rather than treating drug use as a health issue, many in the major parties are still clinging to their failed criminalisation approach. We can’t wait for them to see the light. Lives are at risk. We need to work now to force change onto the political agenda. A bold community campaign that included trade unions, student unions and health organisations could have a big impact if – rather than the just lobbying of politicians – it organised people on the streets. […]

“The war on drugs doesn’t work, never has worked, never will work,” he says. He says NSW should follow the lead of Portugal and some Nordic countries which have decriminalised minor drug offences and shifted the focus to health and social support to tackle problematic drug use. “Let’s deal with them as people. […]

On January 8, the US Senate agreed to a resolution that condemns, among other things, the state-sanctioned killings and the detention of Philippines Senator Leila De Lima, a prominent critic of the drug war. The resolution also called on President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on implicated security forces and government officials. […]

“I have a theory why our opponents are so against what we do. It’s not about the pill testing itself – it runs far deeper than that,” says Caldicott. “It represents a far scarier prospect for those so committed to an approach to drugs that globally has passed its sell-by date. […]

The lack of pill testing at this weekend’s Spilt Milk festival is a “real missed opportunity” according to ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury who wants to see the political barriers to pill testing removed. He repeated calls for a permanent pill testing site in Canberra which was rejected by government. […]

The Coroner did not suggest, and I certainly do not suggest, that pill testing is the answer to illicit drug use. It is simply one of a matrix of reforms which we must be prepared to consider and trial if we are to make a positive difference. But to suggest that pill testing gives the green light to drug use denies or ignores the evidence in the Deputy State Coroner’s report. […]

“In my mind (pill testing) is a health issue, it’s not a law enforcement issue,” she said. “We need to target suppliers and dealers. The more we can disrupt the supply, the better. “I live in the real world, and as a nurse and a midwife you come across people who have made poor or odd decisions … and no one deserves to die for that.” […]

And they want drug checking. Would it have saved Josh? The Tams can’t be sure. But it might have. “The first thing the (counsellors) would have said to him was, ‘Mate, you’re struggling with the heat, do you realise what MDMA will do to your body?’” says Julie. They would have talked him through the dangers. […]

Mr Gough said when people are stigmatised and discriminated against it becomes internalised – resulting in people thinking they don’t deserve any services. “So what I see is people who are disengaging with society because their problematic drug use is causing social isolation,” he said. “Really everyone has a different situation and a different set of problems but people who are deeply withdrawn and who need us to build some trust so that they can then engage with health care services.” […]

“Everyone deserves to enjoy music festivals safely, but Victoria’s out-of-date and punitive drug laws are putting those who enjoy festivals at risk,” said Victorian Greens’ health spokesperson Dr Tim Read. “Pill testing reduces harmful drug use and connects young people to harm reduction services.” Dr Read says that savings will also flow on, by also preventing hospital admissions caused by drug consumption. […]

This is not a matter of giving a green light to drugs. It is doing what we do with safe injecting rooms – saying: “We wish you wouldn’t take these drugs, but if you are going to do it, at least do it while minimising the risks, and let us talk to you about the dangers while we have your complete attention.” […]

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has hinted she could remain open to the possibility of pill testing at music festivals amid reports the NSW Coroner is also considering recommendations police drug operations be scaled back at events.Ms Pilbersek told Today initiatives such as the medically supervised injecting centre in Sydney’s King Cross, where addicts can inject and get medical help away from the eyes of police, helped keep people alive. […]

Former AFP Commissioner Mick Palmer is renowned for asserting that Australia can’t arrest its way out of the drug problem. And he’s not the only ex-top brass turned drug law reformist. There’s once NSW police commissioner Ken Moroney, as well as ex-Tasmania police commissioner Jack Johnston. And now, former NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione has joined their ranks. […]

Ms Patten held a press conference on Monday, alongside young people who had experienced near-death incidents as a result of taking drugs, arguing lives lost from drug overdoses could have been saved with pill testing. “The government still hasn’t agreed to a pill testing trial, an initiative that we know can contribute to keeping young people safe and informed,” Ms Patten said. […]

Pill testing expert Dr David Caldicott has called for on-the-spot checks at NSW festivals after Canberra trials proved highly successful, with revellers ditching identified lethal substances. This year 234 revellers at Canberra’s Groovin The Moo participated in the testing resulting in the discovery of 170 substances. Seven were found with the potentially lethal drug n-ethylpentylone, a low dose but dangerous MDMA substitute, with many queuing 45 minutes in the rain to check their party drugs. […]

The counsel assisting the commission, Sally Dowling SC said the inquiry would hear evidence that the Justice Health department “actively seeks” a needle exchange program in prisons in NSW to address hepatitis C transmission and “broader health problems” associated with non-sterile drug injecting. However, she said, the state’s corrective services department is “steadfastly opposed to such a program”. […]

The minister emphasised: “The ACT government does not condone the use of illicit drugs, we know the safest option remains not to take drugs and this will always be our advice to the community. “However, we also believe governments have a responsibility to not only try and prevent drug use but also to support initiatives that reduce the harms associated with drug use. […]

Luxembourg has called on its EU neighbours to relax their drug laws as its health minister confirmed plans to become the first European country to legalise cannabis production and consumption. “This drug policy we had over the last 50 years did not work,” Etienne Schneider told Politico. “Forbidding everything made it just more interesting to young people … I’m hoping all of us will get a more open-minded attitude toward drugs.” […]

The president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, Dr Alex Wodak, said the division between pill testing and BOH supporters is about which approach is more likely to succeed. ”Both groups are unhappy that young people are dying from drugs at festivals, and both groups are frustrated by the often-vacuous criticisms of pill testing. […]

Canberra academic and physician Dr David Caldicott told 10 daily there was “no evidence” that pill testing encourages or condones drug use — “quite the opposite”, he countered, citing research from long-running programs operating in Europe. “Either a person making these type of comments doesn’t really understand the process, or they do and they’re happy to misrepresent it to the public,” he claimed. […]

Testing drugs to see if they have been cut with poisonous substances does not equate to condoning drug use. Rather, it means the safety of the person taking what they believe to be a particular drug has been considered. Experimenting with drugs is a reality, but shouldn’t we try to reduce the harm associated with drug use if we can? […]

President of the Forensic and Clinical Toxicology Association (FACTA), Dr Dimitri Gerostamoulos, told newsGP his organisation supports pill testing. ‘We support the notion of pill testing, and that’s true for most forensic toxicologists. We are not advocating that illicit drug use is OK, but we support the notion that pill testing is effective, not only here but overseas. […]

Ms Grahame is expected to receive a private police briefing at 9am before meeting with harm minimisation group Red Frogs. She will later have a front-row seat as David Caldicott – an emergency medicine specialist and the leader of Australia’s only sanctioned pill testing trials – demonstrates how drug checking works. […]

It’s an old harm reduction adage that new strategies to combat drug war casualties always face harsh resistance. This seems to be especially so in NSW, which was once a pioneer in establishing needle exchanges and a safe injecting room, both of which Dr Wodak brought across the line. “If this premier doesn’t support pill testing, then the next one will, or the one after the next one,” Dr Wodak concluded. […]

For the sake of thousands of festival-goers who will take MDMA at festivals over summer irrespective of what politicians say, let’s hope the Premier shows the same compassion as the deputy coroner and her team when the recommendations land. […]

SMH reports that emergency Dr David Caldicott wants to conduct the demonstration this coming weekend at the festival. Coroner Grahame, as well as the mother of Alex Ross-King who died at FOMO Festival earlier this year, have both expressed interest in attending the demonstration. Dr Caldicott has been part of two pill testing trials at Groovin The Moo in Canberra, both of which have been hailed success. […]

In the present debate about harm minimisation, it’s the NSW deputy coroner, Harriet Grahame, who’s willing to identify what so many – least of all the NSW premier – just will not. In March, releasing findings from a previous inquest into deaths related to opioid drugs, Grahame recommended “decriminalising personal use of drugs, as a mechanism to reduce the harm caused by drug use”. […]

A Hobart culture and events committee has unanimously voted in favour of supporting a pill testing trial at the city’s major events. The trial would require the state government’s support, but its stance against pill testing had remained firm, with newly appointed Health Minister Sarah Courtney saying pill testing was not supported by the government. […]

Emergency doctor David Caldicott, a senior lecturer at Australian National University, told 10 daily he has “faith” in the coroner’s court to produce well-informed and useful suggestions — but was not confident about how well they would be implemented. “I suspect the coronial report will be full of useful suggestions, many of which will be ignored by our elected representatives for political and moral reasons,” he said. […]

Josh’s parents have now started a foundation called Just Mossin to raise awareness of safety at music festivals. They’re hoping the music festival coronial inquest will lead to more harm minimisation strategies like pill testing. “Change is what’s needed. We don’t believe we have all the answers to it, we hope that the coronial inquest will establish what those changes need to be,” Julie said. […]

The only way to ensure a safer Australian society is to legalise and regulate all drugs. This could save lives, earn huge revenue for the state and diminish the power of criminal gangs that make billions of dollars annually from the production and sale of illicit substances. This doesn’t mean a free-for-all where heroin, cocaine, opioids, ice or methamphetamines will be easily available at the local supermarket but a considered way to tackle both soft and riskier drugs that doesn’t infantilise users. […]

The personal use and possession of ice and other illicit drugs would be decriminalised in NSW under a public health-driven plan backed by the Bar Association and other top lawyers. In a submission to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug Ice the association says that criminalising personal drug use “may result in greater harm to the individual, and to society more broadly”, than the harm caused by the use of illicit drugs. […]

A new push for pill-testing has emerged within the conservative side of politics with a Liberal group fighting for a controversial trial to prevent drug-related deaths at music festivals in Victoria. The Liberal Pride branch has proposed a year-long pill-testing trial in a motion to be debated by party members this month. […]

The ACT government says it will consider directly funding pill testing, after seven potentially deadly drugs were detected at Sunday’s Groovin the Moo music festival at Exhibition Park. Around 234 festivalgoers out of the 24,000-strong crowd took part in the last free drug checking trial in the ACT on the weekend.  […]

After nine months, the room is doing exactly what it was designed to do – save lives. More than 650 overdoses have been successfully reversed in the injecting room, all of which would have occurred in public and which may have otherwise been fatal. […]

If we learn about drugs and drug policy from people who don’t understand them, whose careers and ideologies literally depend on misunderstanding them, we will likely see drug use and drug harms continue to increase alongside the spread of misinformation. Please consult with relevant experts before making material concerning drugs and drug policy public. […]

Pill testing is advocated by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Even more significantly the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation – representing 275,000 nurses and other health sector workers – is also calling for pill testing trials. […]

In January, the PSA issued a position statement in favour of trials being conducted at music festivals, as well as other environments where illicit drug use takes place. […]

A second pill testing trial will take place this year at the Canberra leg of the Groovin the Moo festival, a year after it hosted the first Australian trial in April 2018. The trial, to be run by the STA-SAFE consortium, will use the same technology but will be a larger operation with an additional testing machine and more staff. […]

The Chief Executives Board of the UN, representing 31 UN agencies, has adopted a common position on drug policy that endorses decriminalisation of possession and use. This comes just days before a key meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, which will review, the UN’s 10-year Global Drug Strategy, and plan for the next one. […]

I support Coroner Grahame’s call for a drug summit, not to achieve any preconceived outcomes but as an opportunity for honest and open discussion and as a commitment to action aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable people. Not a talk fest, an “action fest”. […]

The UN Chief Executives Board (CEB), which represents 31 UN agencies including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), adopted a position stipulating that member states should pursue science-based, health-oriented drug policies—namely decriminalization. […]

New Zealand university students offered free drug-testing in ‘harm-prevention’ first | World news | The Guardian

Green party MP Chlöe Swarbrick said drug testing was in line with a health-based approach to illegal drug use, and was a positive step towards drug harm reduction. The Drug Foundation of New Zealand, which is taking part in the testing, also applauded the move. […]

Research has suggested the presence of drug detection dogs at festivals and other public places seldom deters drug-taking. But it often leads to more risky drug behaviour from people who use drugs, such as purchasing drugs inside rather than outside festivals, switching to less detectable but more harmful drugs, and hurried consumption of drugs upon sight of dogs.  […]

Professor Alison Ritter has risen to national prominence in recent months due to her headline-making research on pill testing. Calls for pill testing have been continuously ignited by researchers and rejected by the NSW government, after six drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals in the last six months. “There seems to be no reason not to trial pill testing in Australia,” the professor says. […]

Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council of Tasmania chief executive Alison Lai said zero tolerance “cannot continue to be the only approach”. “The ATDC calls for the convening of an advisory committee of relevant stakeholders and experts to investigate options for trialing pill testing at Tasmania’s music festivals and events,” Ms Lai told The Examiner. […]

Mr Nash, who supports pill testing but does not condone drug use, told Hack the current ‘tough on drugs’ approach was not working. “Young people are taking drugs at festivals, if we bury our head in the sand and say they’re not we’ll end up like you guys with five deaths,” he said. […]

Sunrise’s entertainment host has called for a national debate about pill testing, citing the high numbers of Aussies who use illicit drugs and European countries that already conduct the practice. […]

Whether you morally agree with drug use or not, the current drug laws are neither reducing harm nor stopping use. It’s time for a different approach. […]

Ms Berejiklian again ruled out any proposed pill-testing trials, saying instead that she hoped people were starting to heed a ‘just say no’ message.
Last week the Australian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists added their support for pill-testing trials, joining the Australian Medical Association, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, and RACGP president Dr Harry Nespolon as proponents of the initiative. […]

The issue is created by 30 years of failed drugs policy, and we’re still waiting for governments to catch up,” Mr Harvey told ABC radio’s Jon Faine.

“We are the people trying to do our best to meet these challenges and we are waiting for governments and other organisations to get on board with this rather than continuing the same zero-tolerance message that has caused the problem we face at the moment,” he said. […]