Queensland has long been one of the most conservative states in Australia, with a history of equally as conservative drug laws. 

Soon, it will be home to some of the most relaxed drug laws in the country.

Mobile injection facilities are a cost-effective alternative to stand-alone injecting rooms. Mobile services will provide access to a safe injecting environment for Regional Victorians, preventing overdose deaths and ensuring more equitable access to harm-reduction services across the state.

Australia has a drug problem

In 2020 alone, as a nation we spent over $10 billion on illicit drugs, and 1,788 Australians lost their lives to drug-related overdose.

As RACGP president Dr. Nicole Higgins puts it: “If this isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is”.

Here's what we can learn from Drug Testing programs overseas

Queensland will become the second Australian jurisdiction to offer pill testing. While the timeline is yet to be announced, once up and running, Queenslanders who use illicit drugs can have them checked to see what they actually contain before taking them.

This is likely to reduce the risk of people overdosing on both unexpected and high-potency substances, as well as reducing illness and death from harmful additives and mixtures.

People all over the world are warming up to the idea of legalising cannabis, a drug widely regarded as relatively harmless.

But can legal drug regulation work with cocaine? Let’s put it to the test.

 ADHD and Addictions

Unfortunately, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is largely misunderstood as a diagnosis, often thought to be a childhood disorder which does not persist into the adult years. This is a common misconception and the prevalence of ADHD in the adult community is estimated to be anywhere between 5 to 10% of the population.

What is MDMA?

In the 1970s, MDMA was sold legally at clubs in America until it was banned in 1985.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Australians are the world’s second highest per capita consumers of MDMA.

If MDMA consumption was an Olympic sport we would win silver.

Right before the pandemic shutdown shifted the focus of concern, NSW drug policy was under scrutiny with the then Berejiklian government baulking at pill testing trials to address drug-related deaths at events and rather attempting to shut down the festival industry as a response.

Then NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian further commissioned the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug Ice. However, two and a half years after it delivered 109 recommendations, the Coalition government is yet to respond, and any modest proposals raised have been shot down by cabinet.

So, it’s against this backdrop that we held the Is It Time to Legalise Drugs? forum in Sydney, with a lineup of speakers representing some of the heavyweights in the drug law reform space, who came together to discuss the long recognised need to end a century of drug prohibition.

8 things film and TV get wrong about drug and alcohol treatment

Nicole Lee, Curtin University; Jarryd Bartle, RMIT University, and Paula Ross, Australian Catholic University

Drug use and addiction are popular themes in movies and television, but they often get things very wrong. Here are eight common myths about drugs you'll see on the silver screen.

1. Rehab goes for 28 days

In the movie 28 Days, Sandra Bullock is given a choice between prison and 28 days in a rehab centre.

The 28-day program, popular in the United States, actually has nothing to do with the optimum treatment period.

Health insurance companies in the US are only prepared to fund 28 days in rehab. So the 28-day rehab model was developed around funding, not effectiveness.

We now think about three months of treatment is optimal. Treatment completion may be as important as treatment length. So completing a shorter treatment is better than dropping out of a longer one.