Labor pushed on pill testing on final day of drug summit

A coalition of MPs, the powerful Health Services Union, nurses and GPs have issued the NSW government with a list of demands ahead of the final day of its drug summit, in a public intervention designed to force Labor into backing significant reform.

Tensions at the summit began to rise on Wednesday over the government’s refusal to support decriminalisation of drug possession, despite summit co-chair John Brogden conceding it was “very clear that the summit will want the government to decriminalise drugs”.

Mayor of Portland Ted Wheeler addresses the first day of the NSW drug summit. Credit: AAP/Bianca De Marchi

In the first of two days of hearings in Sydney on Wednesday, starkly different versions of drug reform clashed at the long-promised summit.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler warned the government that wholesale decriminalisation in the US state of Oregon had overwhelmed emergency services and led to high-level dealers acting with impunity. Addressing the conference remotely, Wheeler warned Oregon’s decision to decriminalise drug possession without adequate rehabilitation services in place led to a “free for all” for drug dealers and users, resulting in the “worst of both worlds”.

“The public ... started to see drug dealers congregated in front of their libraries, their schools and their parks, in front of their grocery stores, and it really outraged people,” he said.

“That’s not what they signed up for. They signed up for a rational system that balanced the carrot with the stick.”

In 2020, Oregon became the first US state to decriminalise possessing small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs after a majority of voters backed the law change. The policy was wound back earlier this year after a public outcry over a rise in homelessness and overdose deaths.

The decision to invite Wheeler to speak at the conference angered some attendees who saw it as an effort by the government to head off calls for decriminalisation. But it also centred much of the public debate at the event on the issue, despite calls for a series of other reforms.

With the summit set to continue on Thursday, key delegates including Sydney independent MP Alex Greenwich, HSU boss Gerard Hayes, the Uniting Church, Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham, not for profit group UnHarm, unions representing the state’s nurses, GPs and hospital doctors, and the Australian Festivals Association issued a joint statement calling for the government to move on issues such as pill testing.

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Greenwich’s predecessor, Clover Moore, moved a motion for a safe injecting centre at the 1999 drug summit. With no mechanism to do the same from the floor this year, Greenwich and Hayes chose to issue their demands in an open letter.

The group is demanding drug testing ahead of the summer’s festival season, new legislation to allow extra safe injection centres beyond Kings Cross, a more inclusive drug diversion program, a strategy to prevent prescription drug dependence and treating medicinal cannabis like any other prescription drug in driving laws.

“We cannot wait for more reports, reviews and delayed government responses when we know we could be saving lives now. We call on the government to urgently adopt these key reforms,” the statement says.

Premier Chris Minns, who has previously ruled out enacting decriminalisation before an election, warned summit attendees on Wednesday they would not agree with every speaker. He pushed those present to find “points where we agree” to find “workable” policies.

“Nothing worthwhile ever comes out of an echo chamber,” Minns said. “Not everyone is going to agree on every point demonstrated or represented at the summit, and that’s OK.”

At a press conference that afternoon, Health Minister Ryan Park reiterated Labor’s opposition to decriminalisation, saying the government had “made a decision at this stage that we won’t be going down that path”.

But the decision to rule out that change before the long-awaited summit has angered many attendees. Uniting head of advocacy Emma Maiden pointed out Minns had urged delegates to engage in “good faith” in his opening address.

“We are concerned to have the minister and the co-chairs stand outside the room and rule out some of the big reforms that there is a huge consensus for [at the summit],” she said.

Harm Reduction Australia chief executive Annie Madden, a long-time advocate for drug law reform who spoke as a drug user at the 1999 summit, addressed Wheeler’s presence, saying there was “no one way” to do drug decriminalisation.

“Like anything, [decriminalisation] can be done well, and it can be done poorly,” Madden said in her address. “It is only reasonable that we give decriminalisation a proper chance to do what decades of prohibition has failed to do.”

Brogden said he and co-chair Carmel Tebbutt were willing to present takeaways from the summit that may be unpopular with the government.

“It’s for the government to see what they want to do and how they want to do it,” he said.

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