A growing number of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis, while almost three in five back the idea of pill testing, according to a new national survey. The 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey also shows Australians are drinking and smoking less, but some illicit drug use is on the rise. […]

If former Chief Minister Kate Carnell had been allowed to finish her proposed six-month trial of a safe-injecting room in Canberra, there would be no need for a second prison in the ACT, according to drug decriminalisation advocate Bill Bush. Mr Bush, a member of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform, gave evidence today (14 July) to an ACT…

While the pandemic might have indeed disrupted where Australians socialise and therefore take drugs, drug use has not decreased according to early indications from Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s annual Wastewater survey. This might come as a surprise given there were initial reports earlier in the pandemic that sales of “party drugs” were down across the globe, with dealers in Australia…

People struggling with addiction to alcohol or other drugs often continue to use and endanger their lives, even when they have lost everything: their job, their health, their families, and their freedom. The MSIR is a service that recognises what life is like in the real world. And as long as the MSIR is saving lives, then St Vincent’s Hospital…

Victoria is set to get its second safe injecting room, opposite the Queen Victoria Market, after the government was handed a report showing the North Richmond injecting room had been overwhelmed by demand. The Department of Health and Human Services has identified Cohealth Central City on Victoria Street as its preferred site for the state’s second safe injecting facility. […]

Even with a little tweaking, abstinence-only messaging is not among the evidence-based best practices prescribed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for preventing overdoses. “Rather than finding new drug threats to scare people about, one drug at a time,” said Daniel Raymond, deputy policy director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, “effective media campaigns should aim to build on…

One of the architects of the safe injecting room has called for it to prescribe a pharmaceutical opioid to drug users to reduce the illicit heroin trade in North Richmond. Reason Party leader Fiona Patten wants the state government to extend the two year trial of the medically supervised injecting room in its current location. […]

People being treated for opioid addiction risk relapsing without changes in their support and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Royal Australasian College of Physicians spokesman and president-elect of the Chapter of Addiction Medicine Professor Nicholas Lintzeris said the outbreak has had a huge impact on the 50,000 patients who use methadone or buprenorphine as treatment for their opioid dependence. […]

Another step has been taken towards finally establishing a safe injecting facility for illicit drug users after ACT Health contracted the Melbourne-based Macfarlane Burnett Institute for Medical and Public health to conduct a feasibility study. ACT Health expects a draft report to be submitted by 30 June and a final report by 14 August. […]

Australia was already grappling with an escalating crisis with opioid-related disease and death rates before Covid-19, and Nielsen fears that unless authorities begin considering the risk of a rise in addiction rates the problem could get worse. While she says easing access to methadone was a good step, governments could do things like expanding the number of medically supervised injecting…