NSW drug summit hampered by Minns government’s lack of enthusiasm

One of the consequences of allowing a group of experts and tub thumpers to gather and discuss a polarising social issue is the creation of expectations. Having boldly agreed to a wide-ranging drug summit, Premier Chris Minns must live with its results.

This week’s summit was looking for change, especially on decriminalisation of drug possession, but ran into an obdurate Minns who set the tone by ruling out such a reform before the election. The status quo was further enhanced by the appearance of Portland mayor Ted Wheeler, who told the summit the 2020 wholesale decriminalisation of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs in the US state of Oregon had overwhelmed emergency services and led to high-level dealers acting with impunity.

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

Many were unimpressed. A coalition of MPs, the powerful Health Services Union, nurses and GPs issued the NSW government with a list of demands before the summit’s final day, in a public intervention designed to force Labor into backing significant reform.

They want drug testing before the summer’s festival season, 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.

They argue NSW can no longer wait for more reports, reviews and delayed government responses when reforms could save lives.

The same kinds of arguments were presented at the previous summit in 1999 called by Bob Carr. He evaluated the political impact of bowing to expert demands for the opening of safe injecting rooms, and decided, in light of a heroin epidemic that saw sharp increases in opioid overdose deaths and ongoing blood-borne virus transmission, the reform was necessary.

Minns is not so responsive. He warned summit attendees they would not agree with every speaker and urged them to find “points where we agree” to find “workable” policies.

But drug summit recommendations are always radical. That is partly because in this difficult area of social policy, timidity has long ruled, and adversarial policies have been regularly deployed as a battering ram by political opponents. Reform is hard on such polarising issues. It does not imply approval, but rather the proper acceptance of a responsibility to help save lives where they can be saved.

Of course, there will be complaints the summit lacked balance in the range of opinion presented or the difficult issues raised were not properly considered. Minns does not have to accept everything that has come out of the drug summit, but he cannot walk away from its main conclusions.

Regrettably, the outcomes will be reflected by the government’s lack of enthusiasm going into the drug summit. But in coming weeks, the Minns government must respond positively, considering the best and most practical way to give effect to the summit’s recommendations, and not attempting to avoid the hard decisions.

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