Search results for: “what is harm minimisation”

  • Draconian drug laws should be changed

    Drug law reform has been gaining significant media attention, with the myths surrounding drug driving tests and sniffer dogs being exposed, as well as the successes of festival pill testing schemes. Those in favour of drug law reform seek harm minimisation and liberation from outdated laws, to stop drug laws being used as a pretence…

  • Government looks to expand pill testing in new drugs strategy

    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…

  • NSW sniffer dog plan challenge fails

    NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong brushed off the defeat, insisting the police plan was an overreach of powers and claiming drug dogs get it wrong up to 75 per cent of the time. “If the NSW Police wanted people to be safe at festivals they would be advocates of pill testing, they would be stopping the…

  • Evidence supports more pill testing

    The trial of pill testing at a recent music festival in Canberra was declared ‘‘a great success’’ by ACT police chief Justine Saunders. Testing illicit substances for life-threatening impurities has long helped harm minimisation elsewhere, but the trial was unprecedented in Australia. […]

  • AMA Tasmania pushes for our own pill testing

    The Australian Medical Association Tasmanian president Stuart Day said a number of harm minimisation policies are needed when it comes to illicit drugs, including “needle exchanges, pill testing, and degrees of decriminalisation for some drugs”. […]

  • Politicians, musicians, biz executives, drug advocates push for pill testing in ACT

    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…

  • Ice inclusion in trial makes sense

    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…

  • The ‘Methadone madness’ story run by a current affairs program was highly irresponsible, writes Anthony Tassone

    This disgraceful piece ignores official guidance, veers away from interviewing any health or medical expert and alarmingly and possibly deliberately uses the term ‘meth’ for convenience and further shock effect. The potential consequences of such a story could be patients reluctant to seek treatment and further misinformation being peddled in the community for what has…

  • Hooked for 30 years: the changing faces of Australia’s drug misuse

    “We have to redefine [drug use] and shift from a law enforcement problem to a health and safety problem,” Wodak said, arguing Australia’s harm-minimisation policies have not pushed the pendulum far enough away from punitive responses. […]

  • ACT government ‘interested’ in Victorian supervised injecting rooms trial outcomes

    The ACT government has ruled out an injecting room for the territory “at this time” but will be interested in the outcomes of a Victorian trial. “Notwithstanding this, we are committed to expanding access to evidence-informed drug harm minimisation measures, and will continue to monitor emerging evidence,” the spokesman said. […]