Eddie Lloyd is a Councillor on Lismore City Council and Chair of Council’s Social Justice and Crime Prevention Committee. She also sits on the Aboriginal Advisory Group. Eddie is also a criminal lawyer and has been practicing criminal law since 2011. After running her own private practice she then became employed as a Trial Advocate for the Aboriginal Legal Service.…

Fiona Patten was the leader of Reason Australia (also known as the Reason Party) and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council between 2014 and 2022, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region until she lost her seat at the 2022 state election. Fiona was one of several crossbenchers who held the balance of power in Victoria’s Upper House. […]

Garth Popple is the Executive Director, We Help Ourselves (WHOS) and Director of WHOS International. He currently holds the following honorary positions: Deputy Chair (ex officio past President) Australasian Therapeutic Communities Association (ATCA); and recently Executive Member of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) for the past 13 years; a recent Past President – International Federation of NGOs. […]

Good public policy requires good values and respect for the evidence. Today this principle is under challenge from fundamentalism and populism and needs strong advocacy in the community generally and within the corridors of power. In the field of drug policy, harm reduction has been shown to be effective and enabling for all concerned – the drug users themselves, health…

The War on Drugs is likely the single biggest policy failure in the post-war period, with disastrous consequences ranging from near-failed narco states to ballooning prison populations across the globe. The only blue sky has been the dedication of thousands of people who support and work tirelessly promoting harm reduction in a world where drug taking has always been –…

Gino Vumbaca is the Principal of 3V Consulting Services. Mr Vumbaca has extensive experience in the HIV/ AIDS and drug and alcohol fields both in Australia and internationally. He is a Churchill Fellow, has completed a Social Work degree and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Sydney and is a qualified Company Director. […]

Gloria Lai leads on the Asia regional programme for the International Drug Policy Consortium secretariat as the Regional Director – Asia, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to this role, she worked as a senior policy advisor in the Illicit Drugs Section, Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department and the Law Enforcement Strategy Division, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, and as a…

“It is difficult to understand why we wouldn’t use harm reduction as part of our response to drug use. We mandate seatbelts and helmets; Medicine provides symptomatic relief side by side with treatment for a problem. Harm reduction is logically and experientially essential to addressing problematic, indeed all, drug use. It is the key to responding as a community to…

Greg Chipp is a director of Drug Policy Australia, a newly-established public health NGO primarily concerned with drug policy advocacy and with promoting new legislative approaches to minimise the harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances. Greg has been actively involved in politics and public policy development for several decades, beginning with his involvement in the Australian Democrats, a…

I fully support Harm Reduction Australia and believe that its formation is much needed and long overdue. I believe Harm Reduction Australia should endorse and promote harm reduction as a policy approach, an area which has been significantly neglected over recent years despite its cost effectiveness and strong evidence base. Harm Reduction Australia is well placed to advocate for programs…