Volume 182 - Issue 3
Reducing drug-related harm: Australia leads the way
Authors: Alison J Ritter, Alex D Wodak and J Nick Crofts
Med J Aust 2005; 182 (3): 140-141. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb06625.x
Published online: 7 February 2005
Published online: 7 February 2005
Alison J Ritter,* Alex D Wodak,† J Nick Crofts‡
* Head of Research and Deputy Director, Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre, 54-62 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, VIC 3065; † Director, Alcohol & Drug Service, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW; ‡ Deputy Director, and Director, The Centre for Harm Reduction, Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Melbourne, VIC. alisonrATturningpoint.org.au
In reply: Caldicott and Duff raise a very important question: is the federal government intending to soon terminate Australia’s national drug policy of harm minimisation? This view can be supported by numerous and recent unambiguous speeches by senior government ministers, including the Prime Minister. The government would like Australians to believe that it is implacably opposed to a harm-minimisation approach to illicit drugs.
However, a different view appears when federal government funding allocations are examined. For example, the government allocated $215 million to the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative over 4 years (in addition to a previous allocation of $221 million).1 The intention of this Initiative is to divert selected drug offenders from the criminal justice system to drug treatment. These efforts are, in our view, highly commendable, reducing the use of expensive and largely ineffective custodial punishment and increasing the use of less expensive and more effective drug treatment. They are, however, irreconcilable with a “zero tolerance” or “Tough on drugs” approach to illicit drugs. Another example is AusAID’s recent leadership in the introduction of harm-reduction measures to control HIV epidemics among injecting drug users in Asia.
It is also worth noting that the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy (Australia’s paramount official drug policy-making body since 1985) has repeatedly and recently endorsed a national drug policy of harm minimisation.
The present federal government, unlike its predecessor, frequently and stridently attacks emotionally charged symbols of harm reduction, such as the proposed prescription heroin trial or the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Sydney. However, as the allocation of substantial funding to the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative demonstrates, in most respects it is very much a case of business as usual.
References
- Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. National Illicit Drug Strategy. Available at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/Publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-drugs-illicit-index.htm (accessed Nov 2004).