The ACT is leading the way and it is time for NSW to step up and address the adverse impact of current drug laws.
On Saturday, 28 October the ACT decriminalised illicit drugs in small quantities, including cocaine, heroin, ice and MDMA. These changes are taking place around the world, as it is recognised that the ‘war on drugs’ has failed and a health-based approach is needed.
‘A shift to a focus on health-based and community responses for drug use and dependency rather than seeing the police and the courts as the place where we seek to address this, is long overdue but warmly welcomed,’ said Alice Salomon, Uniting NSW ACT’s Head of Media and Advocacy.
‘For over 20 years, we have run the Kings Cross Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) and have seen first-hand that when we treat addiction as a health issue and offer appropriate supports to people, that positive changes happen.’
NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns had promised that a NSW drug summit would be held if he was elected but has not confirmed when that will take place. It was NSW Labor leader Bob Carr who held the 1999 drug summit that led to the development of the safe injecting rooms, an idea that has been picked up around the world to address drug addiction. Carr had also made it an election promise and fulfilled that promise within two months of being elected.
‘I think we can all agree that real reform when it comes to our unfair drug laws is long overdue and incredibly important,’ pointed out Ms Salomon.
‘We are particularly watching what happens in NSW and the announcement from the NSW premier on the date and time for the long-promised drug summit in NSW.
‘In the ACT they have taken an evidence-based approach and shown a willingness to act in line with community values to support people and treat drug use as a health and social issue – that’s good government.
‘The Queensland government has also committed to drug checking and are exploring expansion of drug diversion for all drugs. NSW is so far behind,’ she said.
It is time for Minns and the NSW Labor government to step forward and take action. The 2020 Ice Inquiry was clear that action was needed and that it was time to reframe NSW drug policy towards a health response.
With summer on its way, no pill testing available and inaction from the NSW Labor government in regard to drug policy reform, we will see more unnecessary deaths and more people criminalised.
Aslan Shand, acting editor
Yes, drug addiction is primarily a health issue; and law reform compelling treatment for the underlying mental health issues driving the addiction, rather than punishment, would significantly improve the situation. Why do we not act on that information?
We have known for decades that the two most addictive and toxic drugs in Australia, alcohol and tobacco, cause more illness and death than all the other drugs put together. Yet they both remain legal – and heavily taxed. Is this hypocrisy?
To act fairly and rationally in treating drug addiction as a health issue, should we not include those two drugs?
But then would politicians currently smoking or drinking themselves into an early grave agree to law reform that would compel them to seek treatment for their addictions?
You may want to look into caffeine and it’s effects. We can just keep adding things to that list. They tied to restrict panadol not that long ago. When does it end?
What’s the evidence that coffee and tea are as harmful as alcohol and tobacco?
Go to youtube or google, type ‘caffeine harm’. In fact, type ‘eating meat harm’. At any given time, there is some monkey publishing a paper saying that everything is killing you. That is why technocracy is so dangerous. Beware of experts saying things. The current system gives them perverse incentives.
There is no evidence that coffee and tea are as harmful as alcohol and tobacco.