Australia has become the first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines, after the Therapeutic Goods Administration took researchers by surprise and approved the psychedelic substances in magic mushrooms and MDMA for use by people with certain mental health conditions.

MDMA and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, will be considered schedule 8 drugs - meaning they’re approved for controlled use when prescribed by a psychiatrist - from July this year after the TGA acknowledged there were few other options for patients with specific treatment-resistant mental illnesses.

The changes will allow MDMA to be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. They will still be considered prohibited substances - or schedule 9 drugs - for all other usages.

Australia becomes first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines

AS 2023, the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science, will take place in Brisbane, Australia, and virtually from 23 to 26 July 2023. IAS 2023, being held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, will shine a spotlight on the world’s advances in HIV research.

The IAS Conference on HIV Science is the world’s most influential meeting on HIV research and its applications. This biennial conference presents the critical advances in basic, clinical and operational HIV research that move science into policy and practice. Through its open and inclusive programme, the meeting sets the gold standard of HIV science, featuring highly diverse and cutting-edge research.

 IAS - the International AIDS Society - will give out both in-person and virtual scholarships for IAS 2023. 

We encourage work that introduces new ideas, concepts and research and deepens understanding in the field, as well as analyses of both successes and failures. 

12th IAS Conference on HIV science - IAS 2023 

A new report released today says Māori are three times more likey to die from a drug and alcohol overdose and highlights the need for a by Māori for Māori policy approach.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation report charts the non-intentional overdose deaths in Aotearoa between 2017 and 2021.

The analysis of coronial data shows an increase in fatal overdoses, which is not accounted for by the population growth over this period.

Māori Public Health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora says the NZ Drug Foundation report highlights concerning outcomes for Māori that must be proactively addressed in any policy response or risk worsening inequities.

"We commend the NZ Drug Foundation for raising awareness of these issues and reporting on key ethnicity data which show our people are three times more likely to die of an overdose than non-Māori," Hapai CEO Selah Hart said.

Aotearoa / New Zealand: Māori three times more likely to die from drug overdose, report reveals

For as long as most of us can remember, the United States has led the charge in the global “War on Drugs”. This disastrous 50-year-old experiment in criminalising people who use drugs while spending billions on law enforcement has caused untold harm and suffering across the world (including New Zealand), especially for Black people, Indigenous peoples, and people of colour.

So even though Biden’s announcement will only affect the relatively small number of people with federal cannabis convictions (most minor cannabis offences are prosecuted at a state level), the fact it came from a serving US president is momentous, and signals the latest in a global shift away from the catastrophe of prohibition.

Over the weekend we launched a petition calling on the New Zealand government to decriminalise cannabis and follow Biden’s lead by pardoning cannabis use and possession convictions. 

Why Aotearoa / New Zealand should decriminalise cannabis and overturn convictions

The ACT government has decriminalised small amounts of commonly used illicit drugs, becoming the first jurisdiction to do so in the country.

Under the new law, people found with amounts of certain drugs considered to be "personal possession" — smaller than trafficable quantities — would be subject to fines rather than criminal charges, and be referred for counselling.

The law, which will not come into effect for 12 months, applies to drugs such as heroin, cocaine and speed.

The legislation follows the recommendations of a Legislative Assembly inquiry into the proposal, which was tabled by Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson last year.

The ACT was the first — and remains the only — state or territory to legalise the personal use of cannabis, another of Mr Pettersson's bills.

The penalty for possession of a small quantity of the decriminalised drugs will be a $100 civil fine (that will not need to be paid if the person chooses to attend an illicit drug diversion class), a diversion or a caution.

Australian Capital Territory government decriminalises small amounts of illicit drugs

The New South Wales government has categorically ruled out decriminalisation in its long-awaited response to a landmark inquiry into drug laws in the state, but will expand pre-court diversion for people caught with illicit substances.

On Wednesday the government finally released its response to the recommendations from Prof Dan Howard’s scathing inquiry, announcing a $500m investment in health and justice reforms.

The package unveiled by the premier, Dominic Perrottet, includes $358m to address “treatment gaps” in drug and alcohol services, as well as justice initiatives including an expanded drug court and a new pre-court diversion scheme for people caught with small amounts of drugs.

But, as had been widely anticipated, Perrottet ruled out adopting the key plank of the report: the complete decriminalisation of drug possession in NSW.

“There are many perspectives, people have been hurt by the scourge of drugs,” he said.

“I disagree with decriminalisation [and] I want to make very clear the NSW government does not support the recommendation to decriminalise drugs in NSW.

“This is the balance you have to get right. We need to send clear messages to people across the state to not take drugs. And then you deal with people who are in the system ... you need to provide the care and support and intervention to help them overcome that addiction.”

Australia: People caught with drugs in NSW may not face court, but government resists decriminalisation

Researchers say ‘substantial evidence’ should encourage governments, in Australia and further afield, to facilitate more medically supervised sites.

A group of researchers and clinicians are pushing for more safe injecting sites to be set up, citing evidence from a long-running facility in Sydney.

The authors of an opinion piece published this week in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) say the supervised injecting site in Kings Cross founded 21 years ago is proof of the approach’s efficacy.

The writers, led by the University of Sydney’s Associate Professor Carolyn Day, who was previously a director of Addiction Medicine Education at the Sydney Medical School, highlight the scale of the work carried out at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC).

From the time it started until the end of April this year, MSIC had recorded a total of 1,232,951 injections at the facility without any fatalities, the researchers state.

They also write that almost 11,000 overdoses have been managed successfully, while 20,420 referrals to health and social services have been made.

The authors say that the MSIC enables a clear reduction in harm for those attending, with adverse events occurring in fewer than 1% of all injections.

‘Put simply, when a safer place to inject drugs is provided, the associated short-term harms are greatly reduced,’ the opinion piece reads.

‘The longer-term harms are also reduced with increased access to services, including drug treatment, hepatitis C care, and smoking cessation.’

Australia: Push for expansion of safe injecting facilities

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian government has decided to replace the death penalty with other types of punishment for a number of offences, said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar on Wednesday (Sep 14).

Dr Wan Junaidi said in a statement that the decision was made after two series of meetings on Sep 6 and Tuesday.

The meetings were held by a task force that he had chaired, referred to as the Substitute Sentences for the Mandatory Death Penalty Task Force Technical Committee.

According to the Bernama news agency, the government has agreed in principle to a proposal to substitute the sentences for 11 offences that carry the mandatory death penalty.

This includes one under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, as well as 22 other offences that carry a potential death sentence at the court's discretion, said Dr Wan Junaidi.

Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act pertains to drug trafficking.

Dr Wan Junaidi also announced a moratorium for 1,337 inmates who had previously been sentenced to death.

The decision will be submitted to the Cabinet to be tabled at a meeting for approval. The first reading of the Bill is expected on Oct 4 and the second reading is expected on Nov 22.

In June, Dr Wan Junaidi said that the Malaysian government had agreed to abolish the mandatory death penalty, and that it would be replaced by other types of punishment at the court's discretion.

This decision was reached following the presentation of a report on the study of alternative sentences to the mandatory death penalty during a Cabinet meeting on Jun 8.

According to Amnesty International, the death penalty is currently mandatory or a sentencing option for 33 offences in Malaysia.

Crimes punishable by death in the country include murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, kidnapping and the possession of firearms.

Malaysia government to introduce alternatives to death penalty

Indonesia’s war on drugs has been a feature of the country’s heavy-handed criminal justice system. Over half of Indonesia’s 404 death row inmates are facing execution for drug-related charges, making it — alongside countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia — one of the most dangerous countries in the world to possess or sell drugs. And the crackdown has recently gained strength: of Indonesia’s 94 death sentences recorded since the start of the pandemic, 80 were for drug-related offences (seven of whom were foreign nationals).

Support for the ‘zero tolerance’ approach is partly based on the idea that Indonesia’s laws promote deterrence. However the data tell a different story. Since the most recent execution of a convicted drug offender in April 2016, prosecution for drug trafficking in Indonesia has kept rising. This suggests that the movement of drugs into Indonesia hasn’t slowed, despite a long and concentrated effort from authorities.

This failure has many culprits: corrupt bureaucracy within law enforcement, cultural issues within the legal field (such as tolerance of bribery), and socio-economic factors that see the poor, marginalised and victims of other crimes over-represented in the drug trade.



This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title "Indonesia’s zero tolerance drug laws leave hundreds on death row - Academia - The Jakarta Post". Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/08/31/indonesias-zero-tolerance-drug-laws-leave-hundreds-on-death-row.html.


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Indonesia's zero tolerance drug laws leave hundreds on death row

By the NZ Drug Foundation and the Helen Clark Foundation

Harmful methamphetamine use has become a serious and intractable health issue in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 20 years, and it is the country’s most feared and stigmatised substance. While Aotearoa New Zealand has turned increasingly towards a health-based approach to drug use over the past several years, no comprehensive analysis has been undertaken about what that might look like in the context of methamphetamine use.

This paper begins by providing an overview of how methamphetamine is used, by whom and why, how big the market is, what the harms are that it causes, and how it is currently regulated. We then recommend how we can reduce those harms by better implementing what the evidence tells us about how to lower demand and support people better using a mix of psychosocial, cultural, and pharmacological approaches.

While only around 1.2% of New Zealanders use methamphetamine each year, according to the New Zealand Health Survey, the relatively low overall number of users hides the significant health, social, and economic impacts of dependent use. While methamphetamine is used in every community in Aotearoa New Zealand, the negative impacts are particularly severe in communities with high pre-existing levels of deprivation and where prevalence of use is significantly higher than the population average. Wastewater testing shows highest per capita methamphetamine use in rural towns in Northland, Bay of Plenty, and Hawkes Bay.

Māori use methamphetamine at a higher rate than non-Māori, and are criminalised for its use at a disproportionately higher rate. The flow-on impacts of colonisation and ongoing systemic racism lead to Māori being more likely to suffer from mental health and addiction issues, and generally from poorer health overall. That means that methamphetamine use takes a higher toll on Māori, who also face greater barriers to accessing appropriate healthcare. In addition, Māori face cultural impacts from high methamphetamine use that are not experienced by other groups. Community leaders have highlighted the negative impacts from high rates of methamphetamine use as one of the most significant issues facing Māori communities.

Methamphetamine is a strong and addictive stimulant. While the majority of people may use it occasionally over a long period without serious health effects, others can rapidly become dependent and find it extremely difficult to stop using it.

The social and economic impacts of methamphetamine in Aotearoa New Zealand are significant. Large profit margins have led to the development of highly sophisticated distribution networks. In some parts of the country, these networks market methamphetamine aggressively, using many of the same tactics as the alcohol industry, such as freebies, discounts, and targeted advertising. These networks aim to introduce new users to methamphetamine, and to increase use among those who already use.

Anecdotally, methamphetamine has in many places replaced, or partly replaced, cannabis as a key source of income for some gangs and other organised crime groups.

It is clear from local and international evidence that attempting to reduce harmful drug use by focusing on reducing supply alone does not work – where there is demand for a drug, someone will always step in to sell it for a profit. Arresting a dealer or intercepting a large amount at the border may dent supply temporarily, but never for long. It is also clear that aggressively marketing a drug can help to increase demand (alcohol is a good example of this phenomenon).

Historically, our approach to reducing harm from methamphetamine use in Aotearoa New Zealand has primarily been to focus on the supply side: coming down hard on dealers, and attempting to stamp out international trafficking and local manufacture. At the same time, we have punished people who use the drug and provided too little, if any, treatment and other support options. Support is often only available to those who are already severely dependent, or who enter the criminal justice system.

The public discourse is now starting to acknowledge that controlling use through enforcement alone has been largely unsuccessful and that drug use should be treated as a health and social issue. Prosecuting individuals for their use is neither effective, nor compassionate. A programme in Northland – Te Ara Oranga – has successfully piloted an approach where police, health staff, iwi, and local NGOs work together to address social issues, and help people access help, rather than prosecuting people for their use.

To get on top of problematic methamphetamine use in Aotearoa New Zealand we need to increase the focus on innovative, and proven, ways to reduce demand. We also need to help people who experience methamphetamine addiction to extricate themselves from a toxic illicit market. People who are addicted often become trapped by debt and turn to dealing or other crime to support their own use.

First, we propose a comprehensive approach to prevention, harm reduction, early intervention, and accessibility of treatment services. In this paper we examine some of the different interventions that could achieve that – such as rolling out the Te Ara Oranga approach nationally.

Second, we propose a pilot to test whether a stimulant substitution treatment model tailored to the Aotearoa New Zealand context could help individuals move away from the harmful impacts of contact and involvement with the illicit methamphetamine market, thus making it easier for them to access support and treatment, and get their lives back on track.

In our proposed pilot, a substitute stimulant – or where this is ineffective, methamphetamine itself – would be provided in tightly controlled circumstances to people who have become addicted and have struggled to achieve abstinence, despite having been through two rounds of treatment. Methamphetamine addiction treatment is often successful at helping people reduce their use but does not always help them achieve full abstinence, or maintain abstinence in the long term. This proposal could help both those who have found treatment to be unsuccessful and those who have found it to be partly successful. Prescribed stimulant substitution could help both groups to avoid interaction with the illicit market and the risks that entails.

Our proposal is modelled on highly effective and well-evidenced experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand with opioid substitution treatment, with heroin-assisted treatment in Switzerland and other places, as well as recent experiences in Canada, where drugs such as amphetamines and opioids have been provided on prescription to dependent users.

Much of this paper relies on international literature and data because there is relatively little data in Aotearoa New Zealand on this topic. There is obviously a need for caution in assuming international data will apply in Aotearoa New Zealand in the same way. We have preferentially sought out Australian literature where nothing is available from Aotearoa New Zealand because of the broad cultural similarities between the two countries.

Minimising the harms from methamphetamine

The New South Wales attorney general, Mark Speakman, has revealed his frustration at his own government’s failure to respond to a landmark report on ice addiction, saying he has spent “hundreds of hours” trying to secure cabinet support for the reforms.

It has been 30 months since Prof Dan Howard handed down the findings of the special commission into ice, commissioned by former premier Gladys Berejiklian prior to the state election in 2019.

Appearing before a budget estimates hearing on Monday, Speakman said he was “disappointed” by the government’s failure to respond, saying Howard’s inquiry was “founded on extensive research and evidence”.

The inquiry, which ran for 14 months, criticised the criminalisation of drug users as a “profound flaw” in the justice system, recommending the complete decriminalisation of drug possession in the state.

Australia: NSW attorney general ‘disappointed’ by own government’s lack of action over ice report

The harm reduction community will soon be ready to connect again – join us in Melbourne for HR23: Strength in Solidarity.

The Harm Reduction International Conference, convened by Harm Reduction International in a different city every two years, attracts over 1,000 international delegates and has been held in almost every region of the world.

Harm Reduction International is thrilled to be holding HR23 in Melbourne, Australia, on 16-19 April 2023.

Registration for HR23 is open now. In August, we will open abstracts. We encourage you to start thinking about innovative and exciting aspects of your work that you would like to present at the conference and to submit an abstract when the time comes.

Over four days of presentations, workshops, films, networking events and more, the conference will continue its history of providing a dynamic forum to share the latest research and discussions on best practice in drug use, harm reduction and human rights, bringing together over 1,000 people from around the world working at the heart of harm reduction and drug policy.

Returning to Australia for the first time in 19 years, the conference will be a unique opportunity showcase Melbourne’s incredible harm reduction programmes and the people who have made them possible, and also to push for further progress not just for the country, but for the region as a whole.

The conference theme, Strength in Solidarity, will underpin all HR23 activities and highlight the importance of our strength – as people, as a community, as a global movement – in sticking together.

An early and strong adopter of harm reduction, Australia has an extensive network of needle and syringe programmes, access to pharmacotherapy options and naloxone, as well as two supervised injecting centres and, in many ways, stands as an example of good harm reduction practice. But despite this long history of harm reduction-focused policy and practice, reform in some spheres – for example heroin prescription programmes, decriminalisation of personal use of drugs and prison-based needle and syringe programmes – is still a challenge.

Of course, we couldn't possibly host a conference in 2023 without an online element to enable people who can't or don't want to travel to attend. Full details to follow soon!



Oceania