President Harm Reduction Australia Gino Vumbaca has told Sky News the tragedy shows the need for a national pill testing service to be rolled out. He says research overseas has shown giving partygoers information about the drug they are planning to take can ‘save lives.’ […]

Kevin Simmers locked up hundreds of drug users—including his own daughter—while the opioid epidemic raged. Now he wants 24-hour treatment on demand.   […]

Almost 60 per cent of NSW voters support pill testing at music festivals despite the state government’s refusal to consider it, exclusive new polling reveals one week after two people died at a dance party. […]

Advocacy groups, including STA-Safe and some of the nation’s leading drug researchers, have begged the government to drop its “zero-tolerance” stance, insisting the answer is simple — and lives will be saved if the government changed its approach. […]

There have been 8,000 visits and 140 people had been treated for potentially life-threatening overdoses, according to recent figures. “This was [set up] to save lives, every indication is this facility is saving lives,” the mental health minister, Martin Foley, said as he revealed the statistics late last month. […]

New report says opioid treatment is unaffordable and inaccessible for many people Harm Reduction Australia (HRA) and ScriptWise are calling for improvements in opioid treatment due to the current lack of availability, acceptability and affordability of treatment for affected Australians. In addition to the approximately 50,000 people currently on MATOD in Australia, modelling has estimated that the unmet demand for…

Representatives voted to adopt what will be the organisation’s first ever position on how States should address the challenges posed by drugs from a human rights perspective. The proposed policy calls for a shift away from the current “scorched-earth” approach of heavy-handed criminalisation, to an approach where protection of people’s health and rights are at the centre. […]

‘Drug’ Prohibition is an archaic system rooted in the 1950s that’s had a devastating global impact upon individuals, families, communities and countries. In decades to come, it will be remembered as one of the most arbitrary, barbaric and brutal systems of oppression in recent history. […]

There are now close to 100 safe injecting facilities across the world. We know that safe injecting facilities work to reduce harms and deaths, and to improve access to treatment for people who use drugs. They also reduce the spread of blood borne viruses and reduce community exposure to people injecting. […]

While addiction can be harmful and suck away our spirit, it need not be an eternal shackle. It is a part of our biology and our being, but its destructiveness can be minimised and managed.” […]