Inquiry into Amphetamines and Other Synthetic Drugs (AOSD)

[NickyJ]

Meh. ERDs is what people who worry about their funding call them We know they are party drugs.

I can't put up the whole transcript of our presentation to the Committee yet, but I thought I'd give you a taste. This bit I love because just like we got Christoper Pyne to admit he doesn't need research, we got two Liberal Senators to admit their ad campaigns are a failure:

Brilliant, well done :D

 

[phase_dancer]

The first time I remember hearing the term was around the first PDI

Yep, that's when I first heard the term.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Calling All Aus BLers.......

Please voice your opinions in Tronica's sticky thread. The outcomes of this inquiry will probably influence future drug laws.

Whether you're an occasional user or at it every day, tell your story, good or bad. Many of the committee have previously had little if any exposure to drugs and/or people who use drugs.

This is your chance to say what you think, and to use your life experiences to back up what you think.

Should laws be made much tougher? Some on the committee and some who've given evidence, think so. Perhaps you also think that?

Whatever your opinions are, Tronica is able to have them reach the committee members.

So get busy, write YOUR story and give YOUR suggestions. Chances like this don't come around very often.

 

[Tronica]

Thanks phase_dancer

Thought I'd post up an update on the list of submissions and additional material on the Inquiry website:

continues on from JB initial post:
19 Families & Friends for Drug Law Reform (ACT) Inc (PDF 571KB)
20 Department of Premier & Cabinet, Queensland Government (PDF 215KB)
21 The University of Queensland, TC Beirne School of Law (PDF 709KB)
22 National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) Flinders University (PDF 190KB)
23 Australian Self-Medication Industry (ASMI) (PDF 33KB)
24 The Australia Institute (PDF 99KB)
25 Name withheld (PDF 14KB)
26 The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PDF 395KB)
27 nuaa - NSW Users & AIDS Association Inc (PDF 85KB)
28 ABC Triple J - The Hack (PDF 1419KB)

Additional material
Transcript of ABC Triple J program on Amphetamines of Friday 5 May 2006 (PDF 88KB)

 

[hoptis]

The JJJ submission makes for interesting reading... hopefully the senators will have enough time to read each one, and the Bluelight ones of course.

 

[Tronica]

They seemed quite committed to the task. Also, Ravesafe will be submitting over the next month, which is good to see!

The JJJ submission is interesting reading. A few people were taking the "I took drugs and they fucked me up so we just have educate the kids and they won't make the mistakes I did" approach. Not such a bad thing in theory, but they tend to hope their example will actually stop people from trying drugs at all - which is a bit unrealistic!

 

[Tronica]

More info - Canberra hearing next Monday:

MEDIA RELEASE

Inquiry into Amphetamines and Other Synthetic Drugs (AOSD)

As part of its inquiry into Amphetamines and Other Synthetic Drugs (AOSD), the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission will be holding a public hearing in Canberra on Monday 5 June.
This follows hearings in Adelaide (3 May), Perth (4 May), Brisbane (15 May), and Sydney (16 May).

Details of the Canberra public hearing are:
Monday 5 June 2006
Committee Room 2S1, Parliament House, Canberra.

Witnesses
9.00 am Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
9.45 am The Australia Institute
10.45 am Friends and Family for Drug Law Reform
11.30 am Department of Health and Ageing
1.30pm Attorney General's Department
2.15 pm Australian Customs Service
3.15 pm Australian Federal Police
4.00 pm Australian Crime Commission

 

[hoptis]

Australia losing war on drugs
06 Jun 2006

AUSTRALIA is experiencing soaring demand for amphetamines and ecstasy, with domestic production and imports of the illegal drugs showing no signs of abating, an inquiry was told yesterday.

The joint parliamentary inquiry into amphetamines and other synthetic drugs was also warned Australia would continue to lose the war on drugs while anti-drug policies kept targeting users instead of suppliers.

The inquiry, chaired by Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, yesterday heard from law-enforcement agencies, health authorities, researchers and drug users.

From The Advertiser

 

[Tronica]

Similar article in The Australian:

Use of party drugs soaring
June 06, 2006
DEMAND for amphetamines and ecstasy is skyrocketing, with both domestic production and imports of the illegal drugs rising fast.
A joint parliamentary inquiry into amphetamines and other drugs was warned yesterday that Australia would continue to lose the war on drugs while policies kept targeting users instead of suppliers.

The inquiry, chaired by Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, heard from law enforcement agencies, health authorities, researchers and drug users.

The Australian Crime Commission said demand for amphetamines and drugs such as ecstasy was rising. "Intelligence gathered by the ACC and its partner agencies indicates the domestic demand for amphetamines and other synthetic drugs is increasing, with little likelihood this trend will alter in the near future," its submission said.

Law enforcement agencies detected 358 clandestine amphetamine laboratories in 2004, compared with just 58 in 1996, the ACC said.

Ecstasy use almost tripled in the past 13 years, with 3.4 per cent of Australians having used the drug in the previous year, while users of amphetamines increased from 2 per cent to 3.2 per cent.

The Australian Federal Police said most amphetamines were made domestically, but agencies were seeing increased imports of concentrated forms of the drug, such as ice.

Agent Michael Phelan said the AFP devoted most of its resources to catching drug suppliers. "The arrest and charging of users is extremely limited," he said. "Well over 95 per cent ... would be those involved in importation or manufacture, not users."

His comments followed criticism from the Australia Institute, which told the inquiry that policies focused too heavily on policing and failed to recognise addiction as a health problem.

The institute's Andrew Macintosh said police were wasting resources raiding dance parties to prosecute teenagers carrying small amounts of drugs.

link

Congratulations to the Australia Institute for taking this on.

 

[Tronica]

The Daily Telegraph

Drug policies 'target wrong people'

By David Crawshaw

June 05, 2006

THE nation's anti-drug policies have failed because they focus too heavily on prosecuting users rather than catching dealers, an inquiry has been told.

The parliamentary joint committee on the Australian Crime Commission, headed by Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, is inquiring into amphetamines and other synthetic drugs.

The inquiry has been told the Federal Government's "tough on drugs" stance has had little effect on drug use, and Australia now has the highest rate of amphetamine use in the world.

Andrew Macintosh, deputy director of left wing think-tank the Australia Institute, told the committee drug policies focused too heavily on law enforcement and failed to recognise addiction as a health problem rather than a criminal one.

He said police were wasting time and resources raiding dance parties to prosecute teenagers carrying small amounts of recreational drugs.

"Why do we keep putting more and more resources into law enforcement when we know they're not getting us very far?" Mr Macintosh told the inquiry.

"Behaviour will not change significantly as a result of law enforcement.

"The nucleus of drug strategy must be prevention and treatment programs rather than law enforcement.

"At the moment, around 80 per cent of government resources are spent on law enforcement (and) most of this is tied up in chasing down drug users rather than suppliers."

Australia should consider decriminalising, but not legalising, possession offences for softer drugs such as cannabis, he said.

Evidence showed this would free up police resources and ease the social impact of drug use but would not lead to an increase in the number of people using drugs.

"If we kept supply-side drug law enforcement and went to say, a decriminalised scheme (for drug use), I don't think you'd see any noticeable change in the patterns of cannabis use," Mr McIntosh said.

"The evidence on that is really quite strong."

He said the Netherlands had only a "mid-range" incidence of cannabis use compared with other European countries, notwithstanding the fact it did not prosecute minor drug offences.

Family and Friends for Drug Law Reform president Brian McConnell told the hearing existing drug education programs in schools were ineffective and some were "a waste of money".

"You need to provide factual information to the kids, not hype and exaggeration," he said.

"If you say to a kid, 'You smoke cannabis and you'll get psychotic or you'll get schizophrenia', the kid will know someone who is using cannabis and has never been psychotic or schizophrenic. And so it puts the lie to the education."

The hearing continues.

 

[(Wordy)]

Congratulations to the Australia Institute for taking this on.

Indeed. They do very good work. Although I get a bee in my bonnet every time I see the media referring to them as a "left wing thinktank". To me this phrasing is sheer redundancy, reminiscent of "female artist" or "black athlete". 8) But that's just me - there are definitely bigger fish to fry in this debate!

 

[Tronica]

A new submission is up, you may recognise it

 

[Fry-d-]

Awsome

 

[Tronica]

Report released yesterday

Final Senate Report

 

[Splatt]

I found this after flicking through it for seconds.. under the MDMA section in the 2nd part

2.19 In its crude or base form, MDMA is a white, musty-smelling oil with a searing, bitter taste. The base is converted into a salt or powder form for processing into capsules or tablets, usually stamped with a symbol or logo. MDMA derivatives found in Australia include MDA, MDEA and PMA.[19]

How is PMA an MDMA derivative?

 

[hoptis]

NEWS: The Australian - 01/03/07 'Call for internet drug fight'

Call for internet drug fight
Sid Marris
March 01, 2007

POLITICIANS want police and the Australian Crime Commission to have extra powers to scour the internet and hunt the manufacturers and suppliers of synthetic drugs such as ice and ecstasy.

Authorities should be allowed to spy in web chatrooms and track down "cookbooks" that guide criminals and their technicians in the manufacture of the drugs, a parliamentary committee report said yesterday.

Other types of investigations, such as into tax evasion or money-laundering, should be encouraged in a bid to catch those businesses that operate with legitimate operations.

The joint standing committee on the Australian Crime Commission, which investigated amphetamines and other synthetic drugs warned that organised crime was increasing its involvement in the insidious trade and a bolstered and co-ordinated national response was needed.

About 4 per cent of Australians aged from 15 to 64 had used amphetamines, about 100,000 people, compared with 1.6 per cent in Britain and 1.4 per cent in the US. Ecstasy use was of a similar proportion.

Clandestine laboratories uncovered by police had grown from 58 a decade ago to 381 in 2004-05, the committee noted.

Investigators needed extra money from commonwealth, state and territory governments to specifically tackle law enforcement as well as education and research, the report says.

The use of ice was escalating, with it becoming the drug of choice among young people who did not believe it carried the social stigma of heroin. The increase was in part driven by international crime groups moving into amphetamines and other synthetic drugs (AOSD).

"Domestic organised criminal groups are also increasingly becoming involved in the production of AOSD, again because domestic production is more profitable," the report says.

"The escalation in the use of AOSD, coupled with the increasing availability of illicit drugs, now poses a significant problem for governments."

The Australian

 

[tribesman]

Recommendation 7

4.71 The Committee recommends that the Victorian feasibility study for an illicit tablet monitoring and information service be monitored and, as appropriate, the outcomes independently evaluated by the appropriate Commonwealth government agency.

Although the comments on pill testing were largely positive, it is really yet to be seen what side of the fence they will jump. I think the evaluation by the Commonwealth government will largely depend on which faction makes it into power after the next federal election.

 

[lil angel15]

News: Daily Telegraph - 2/3/07 'Australia, the ecstasy nation'

Australia, the ecstasy nation
By Alison Rehn
March 02, 2007 12:00am

AUSTRALIA'S use of the drug ecstasy is the highest in the world - and is getting worse, according to a parliamentary report.

The report, endorsed by all major parties, calls for the National Drug Strategy to give more attention and resources to harm-reduction strategies.

The inquiry, which looked at the manufacture, importation and use of amphetamines and other synthetic drugs (AOSD), said pill testing at rave parties should be considered as a way of addressing the serious effects drugs can have on users.

A program in Victoria – which tests the composition of pills about to be consumed by rave participants – inspired the committee to recommend pill testing be further considered.

"The committee acknowledges that tension exists around the harm-reduction and demand-reduction potential of pill testing programs," the report, released on Wednesday, said.

"There are concerns that such schemes equate with condoning drug-taking, could expose pill-testing authorities or practitioners to civil or criminal liability and could endanger users of such services.

"Without endorsing or otherwise approving pill testing, the committee considers that the Victorian study should be monitored."

As well as pill testing, the committee recommended that public education and demand-reduction campaigns be more informative, "appropriately targeted" and seek input from young people.

The report said Australia had the highest consumption per head of population in the world of ecstasy – 3.4 per cent.

Every weekend, Australians consume 100,000 ecstasy tablets.

The report also found that the rise in methamphetamine-use – particularly regular use of its purer forms, base and ice – had been linked with an increase in mental illness in users.

"While most AOSD is imported, recent seizures of precursor chemicals and clandestine laboratories (clam labs) show domestic manufacture is increasing," parliamentary committee chairman Ian Macdonald said.

Detections of laboratories rose from 58 in 1996-97 to 381 in 2004-05.

The Daily Telegraph

 

[hoptis]

I agree that it seems like a largely positive result... thanks to all the BL'ers who put in a submission last year, perhaps some of our input was taken onboard?

As well as pill testing, the committee recommended that public education and demand-reduction campaigns be more informative, "appropriately targeted" and seek input from young people.

 

[Splatt]

Good news

 

[Tronica]

The Bluelight submission was cited once in the report:

"Some submitters were critical of the role the media played, accusing the media of scaremongering and thereby undermining the goal of responsible and effective drug education." (p. 43)

It's likely that the submission did influence things on a more subtle level. Certainly some of the recommendations are in keeping with the Bluelight submission, as Hoptis has shown.

I like this recommendation:

Recommendation 6
The Committee recommends that, in the execution of the National Drug
Strategy, harm-reduction strategies and programs receive more attention and
resources.