Scott Morrison's one-word gesture won't unify Australia, but a bigger conversation might https://t.co/nTBIs6oRys
Desperately needed reforms to laws around illicit drug use have been rejected by the NSW Government.
The reforms were proposed by the NSW Special Commission into the Drug ‘Ice’, which reported to the Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, in late January. To declare an interest, I worked as an editor with the commission for a few months.
The commission, led by Professor Dan Howard SC, a former President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, a former Acting Judge of the District Court of NSW and a former NSW Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor, made a raft of progressive and evidence-based recommendations. They’re based on the following principles.
It’s impossible to summarise 109 recommendations, but the ones that seemed to me of most importance could be summarised as:
At the time she announced the inquiry, the Premier said: “We are establishing a powerful Special Commission of Inquiry because we want every option on the table to bolster our existing efforts to combat the evolving threat of this dangerous, illegal drug – and to get help for those who need it.”
The options on the table didn’t last long. Within a month of the report being delivered, the Government rejected options such as a needle and syringe exchange program in prison, and one or more medically supervised injecting rooms in the community, pill testing and stopping the use of sniffer dogs. It will consult with stakeholders to consider the remaining recommendations.
The 1200-page report is now available on the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s website, as is the NSW Government’s response. In that response the NSW Government says: ‘The Government has already put in place comprehensive measures to address alcohol and other drug-related harm in NSW.’
The Commissioner saw it differently.
‘It is clear that our current drug policies are inadequate to meet the profound harms that crystal methamphetamine and other ATS pose to the health and fabric of our society,” he wrote. He says he:
It’s not clear what evidence the NSW Government gathered to reject some of the recommendations so quickly.
This article was first published by Croakey Health Media
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