Pill testers just like ‘illegal drug dealers’

[poledriver]

Top prosecutor says punters not legally protected by pill testing programs at music festivals

ONE OF Australia’s top silks says people who run and use pill testing programs at music festivals could be arrested, unless the government changes the law or develops an agreement with police similar to the policy it has with legal injection centres.

These comments come as NSW Premier Mike Baird reiterated his stance against pill testing yesterday, while the organisers of popular festival Stereosonic say they would support a testing program.

Mr Baird says the government would not use “taxpayer funded dollars” towards “supporting illegal drug dealers”.

“What they are asking us to do is to allow illegal drugs,” Mr Baird told Sunrise on Wednesday morning.

“Don’t take the pills and you’ll be fine. That is the best form of safety you can do,” he said.

Former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, who is currently an adjunct professor at the Sydney Institute of Criminology, says if police enforce laws correctly any illegal drug user or tester is “liable to arrest and prosecution”.

“The simple fact is that anyone possessing or supplying a prohibited drug, for pill testing purposes or otherwise, commits a criminal offence,” he told news.com.au.

For the pill testing program to work, police would need to introduce a policy where they don’t arrest people in and around the test facilities.

At the one medically supervised injection centre in Australia, in Kings Cross, there is an agreement with police that people entering the centre won’t be stopped for drug offences.

“Of course, they are all carrying illegally obtained prohibited drugs that they want to inject,” said Mr Cowdery.

“A police officer outside could, in the ordinary discharge of duty, have a reasonable suspicion of that and move in to arrest. But they don’t, because of this protocol. Nor do they enter the centre to investigate for drugs.”

Earlier this week, Deputy NSW Premier Troy Grant said those offering to set up the pill testing program, including emergency medical specialist Dr David Caldicott and president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation Dr Alex Wodak, could be arrested for supplying drugs and manslaughter, if their program went ahead.

“If these [tested] pills go wrong and kill someone, they may well be vulnerable to manslaughter charges,” Mr Grant told 2UE.

Dr Wodak, who committed an act of “civil disobedience” in 1999 when he set up an injection centre called the Tolerance Room in Kings Cross, says he knows he’s taking a risk.

“When we were setting up the injection centre, there were those same threats. I was terrified. Of course I was worried I was going to be arrested,” he told news.com.au.

His colleague Reverand Ray Richmond, the Wayside Chapel landlord, was arrested in 1999, but the charges were later dropped.

NSW psychologist Bruce Duffey was arrested in 2000 on a charge of holding out, or advertising, a premises for the unlawful administration of prohibited drugs. Three drug users were also arrested at the time.

“These matters were heard in court and the magistrate dismissed the four charges with contempt, meaning that they should never have been put forward,” Dr Wodak said.

He is currently consulting with some of the country’s top lawyers on how to protect those who run the testing programs and the drug users who use them.

According to documents obtained by The Guardian, NSW police were advised by their lawyers in 2005 that pill testing is unlikely to breach NSW drug possession and supply lawyers.

The advice in the 2005 federal Department of Health and Ageing report concluded it was unlikely a person conducting pill testing could be found guilty of supplying or possessing an illegal drug.

Johnboy Davidson from the pill reviewing website PillReports.net set up pill testing programs at music festivals in Victoria and South Australia between 2000 and 2006.

He says people lined up “in their hundreds” to have their drugs tested.

“People want to know [what’s in their drugs]. Most of the time when you give them bad information they don’t take the drugs,” he said.

“If I say ‘I’m guaranteeing this stuff will damage your organs and you could die’, as if someone would still take it?

“These people are already going to these festivals carrying drugs. They’re already taking a risk. If they’ve got that far, they’re prepared to have their drugs tested.”

Calls for pill testing programs have been reignited after several drug-related deaths at music festivals in Australia.

Sydney pharmacist Sylvia Choi, 25, and 19-year-old Adelaide man Stefan Woodward died within a week of each other at different Stereosonic concerts last year.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...s/news-story/effe9887ce40ec2144488d7f3b970193

 

[poledriver]

This Emergency Room Doctor Is Literally Daring The Police To Arrest Him

“I welcome the opportunity to be wrongfully arrested.”

Critical care doctor David Caldicott is tired of young people dying from overdoses at festivals, so he wants to test their pills.

The man with the thick Irish accent and massive side-burns is a key member of the group of doctors and experts who’re openly thumbing their noses at the NSW government and promising to roll-out a pill testing trial at music festivals.

There’s been a series of high-profile deaths of Aussie teenagers from dodgy caps and pills and Caldicott thinks potentially breaking the law is worth the risk.

“I am the father of three very precocious girls and a son, I welcome the opportunity to be wrongfully arrested. My girls need frocks and I don’t know what the going rate for wrongful arrest is at the moment,” he told BuzzFeed News.

Caldicott is part of a renegade group of medical experts, including Dr Alex Wodak (below) who think educating young people through pill testing will stop them from taking dangerous substances.

There’s been mutliple high-profile deaths at Australia’s most famous dance festival, Stereosonic. Just months ago a man died at the Adelaide festival while Sylvia Choi (pictured) died from an ecstasy overdose in November.

So the team of doctors are proposing to take the pill testing machine to the festivals.

“We are bringing the mountain to Mohammed,” said Caldicott.

“I admire people who have a moral objection to drug use, but I don’t allow people who don’t like blood transfusions, to determine blood transfusion policy. If they have a problem then let them apply it to their family, not to the rest of the society.”

Festival organisers have expressed serious desire to have the testers on site but are wary of pissing off authorities. And the state police minister’s actions will go a long way to decide whether the trial ends in doctors and health workers hand-cuffed.

BuzzFeed News understands the NSW police minister Troy Grant (right) has no intention of directing police to crackdown on the rebel pill testing group.

But when questioned about the practice, Grant took a stronger approach.

“This Government does not support pill testing because these drugs are illegal and inherently dangerous,” Grant told BuzzFeed News.

“The Government’s current legal advice is that NSW legislation provides the NSW Police Force with the power to take action against pill testers at music festivals.”

This means it’ll be up to the police officers on-site as to whether they arrest the doctors.

Caldicott told BuzzFeed News the government’s approach is silly because of the simple fact that young people take drugs, “I see this has one of the last convulsions of prohibition in Australia.”

“As people see that they are losing the argument, they thrash about.”

“In many ways it’s sad because it’s not the intellectual debate that it should be but a series of threats being exchanged in the media.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/dont-arrest-me-bro?utm_term=.id9boE5WG#.esZ1P5l4O

 

[spacejunk]

Dr Caldicott is a fucking legend (and bluelighter fwiw) :D

These articles are stupid reactionary nonsense, and will convince nobody that doesnt already disagree with pill testing and HR measures.
Fight the power!

 

[neversickanymore]

“What they are asking us to do is to allow illegal drugs,” Mr Baird told Sunrise on Wednesday morning.

From the current real life situation no ones asking you.. they are just gong ahead and taking the drugs. Your policies and thinking greatly increase the risk they face and end in greatly increased tragedy.

 

[spacejunk]

The government attitudes (and statements) on this issue are essentially saying that people deserve to die if they choose to take drugs.
As the death penalty has been outlawed for over 30 years (and the last man hanged was in 1967) - this attitude is frankly unacceptable to me and everyone i have discussed it with. Typically hypocritical bullshit.

 

[Yeetbeat]

I'll keep the sentiment in mind should their son or daughter ever walk out in front of my car. I mean - they were jaywalking, which is against the law. They deserved the consequences, right? RIGHT?

 

[spacejunk]

Exactly.

 

[neversickanymore]

I know this smile well. This is the smile that says "don't fuck with me or you will pay hard!"

 

[Hiltoniano]

So why are they doing this exactly? It seems to be so backwards I can't wrap my head around what sort of tiny(maybe just lack of) brains behind this .... Yea arrest the people who are trying to save lives and continue to let people die... Only to use those deaths to perpetuate the same cycle of fear mongering and say " don't do drugs they are unpredictable and its Russian roulette with your life. Maybe they should look into something actually helping people and reducing the damage of the black market prohibition itself created. Hmm well I hope this doesn't deter people from testing their stuff it's a real help in stopping someone from taking a random powder/crystals called Molly...

Pretty sad to hear they are goin about this way, as usual. People deserve to know what they're ingesting, for the sake of reducing the harm from a broken and rigged system. I just hope people see this guy and the trash that he spews for what it is. I assume that most people would not agree with this fool but then again I do worry sometimes...

 

[RedRum OG]

Reminds me of religious people who don't want kids go have condoms and sex education because "it'll encourage sex."

 

[poledriver]

We Asked Dr Alex Wodak Why He's Determined to Test Pills at Music Festivals

Until this week you probably hadn't heard of Dr Alex Wodak. The physician has since made headlines with his vow to offer drug tests at music festivals. Despite significant backlash from government and police, Wodak seems resolute, "I am prepared to break the law to save young people's lives," he told Fairfax Media.

Dr Wodak has spent his entire career advocating for drug reform and isn't one to shy from a fight. "With some of these things it's not easy but sometimes as a last resort you need to think about civil disobedience," he told VICE.

Back in the 1980s, Dr Wodak played a central role in setting up Australia's first needle and syringe program—an attempt to limit the risk of intravenous drug users spreading HIV/AIDS and other infections by sharing needles. "Various major threats were made to me about what would happen to me, and what the police would do to me, charge us with," Wodak says. "But I knew then that we were right.

"If the government didn't allow this to happen quickly we were looking at a high probability of a severe HIV epidemic. Putting the genie back in the bottle was going to be very difficult."

On the 12 November 1986, Wodak and his colleagues defied the then-NSW Labor government and launched an illegal needle exchange program in Darlinghurst. This is probably the reason Australia never saw more than three percent of intravenous drug users diagnosed with HIV. In the US however, more than 17 percent of people diagnosed with HIV in 1985 were intravenous drug users. This was the height of the AIDS epidemic and it's probable that early interventions in Australia, such as the needle exchange and the Medically Supervised Injecting Room in Kings Cross, curtailed the worst of it.

It's something you hear quite a lot—that Australia was once a leader in drug reform, but we've fallen behind. And it's not as though the problem of harmful drug use has gone away. What we're world leaders in now is consumption: MDMA, cannabis, ice—we take them at higher rates per capita than almost any other country. On top of that we're arresting and prosecuting people for drug offences at all time high levels. The death of seven young Australians over the last year at music festivals seems to have snapped the country out of its apathy on the issue, and prompted the question: Is what we're doing working?

"I've been feeling uncomfortable about this for a long time, but it just got overwhelming for me when seven young Australians lost their lives going to these music events, taking pills, and then ending up dead," Dr Wodak said.

"Apart from those deaths, we also had an increasing number of young Australians who were so ill they required hospitalisation, but at least they didn't die. That also bothered me a lot."

What Dr Wodak wants to do, along with emergency medicine specialist Dr David Caldicott and drug reform campaigner Will Tregoning of Unharm, is set up a lab-quality testing service at an Australian music festival. This would allow festivalgoers to have their drugs tested to see whether they're safe for consumption. Another important element is the safe-disposal bins: if someone finds out their drugs aren't what they thought, they have the option to dump them securely.

Stereosonic music festival was the first to come forward and welcome Dr Wodak's program. Last year, a 19-year-old man died after taking drugs at the festival's Adelaide event. Two other people overdosed in Adelaide, and another 20 at their show in Brisbane.

The NSW Government's response has been swift, with deputy premier Troy Grant threatening Wodak, Caldicott, and anyone else involved with arrest for supplying drugs, and even manslaughter. Premier Mike Baird told Sunrise that his government wouldn't use taxpayer dollars to support illegal drug dealers. His advice to partiers: "Don't do it. That is the best form of safety you can do. Don't take the pills and you'll be fine."

Dr Wodak says he has a lot of respect for both Mike Baird and Troy Grant but is disappointed with their response. Does he plan to move forward with the testing? "Of course, we're all committed to going ahead with this and we will."But of course, pill testing targets just one facet of Australia's drug problem. Advocates around the country are calling for radical change—decriminalisation and even full legalisation. As someone with decades of experience in drug reform, this is something Dr Wodak also backs.

"Criminalising drugs, which we have done for over half a century has covered a period in Australia where the drug market has continued to expand and become more dangerous, where deaths, disease, crime, corruption and violence have all continued to increase," he says. "The trend is very clear compared to the 1960s, when we started moving down this path, things have gone from bad to worse."

However, he is clear that any drug reform can't just focus on changing the laws, it also needs to address the systematic and social reasons people engage in harmful drug use: more treatment, medically supervised injecting rooms, and better regulation.

"As much as I support the idea of reducing and where possible eliminating criminal sanctions from people who traffic, buy, or use illicit drugs that's not enough on its own. That's only part of the answer," he says.

"We also have to accept that where we have extensive poverty, severe disadvantage, where young people have no hope for the future, drug use will be a considerable problem and people will get into a lot of trouble when they use drugs."

http://www.vice.com/en_au/read/we-t...stralian-music-festivals?utm_source=vicefbanz

 

[poledriver]

Personal prejudices towards drug checking fail the good government test

Two weeks ago a Sydney policy consultant got an unexpected phone call from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).

The consultant, Will Tregoning, was asked about a discussion paper he had just finalised on the issue of checking of illicit drugs at music festivals and other venues.

Tregoning is co-founder of Unharm, an organisation that rejects the "just say no" approach to illicit drug use and instead advocates harm reduction strategies, including drug checking.

It was a hot topic, given a recent public debate sparked by the death of 25-year-old pharmacist Sylvia Choi late last year at Sydney's Stereosonic music festival.

Indeed, the night before the phone call, the ABC's Four Corners had broadcast a program on the issue.

The program featured the NSW Police Minister and Deputy Premier Troy Grant looking quite the dill.

Grant told the program that drug checking "has no way to tell you whether it will kill you or not. And that's been demonstrated by the National Oversight Committee in the Netherlands".

But the program reported that when it checked with the Netherlands group, it responded that Grant had misread its research and his analysis was "wishful thinking, simplistic and rash".

As it turns out, NDARC had been called by a representative of the Department of Premier and Cabinet the morning after the program requesting more information on the pros and cons of drug checking.

So when Tregoning received the call from NDARC it was to suggest he pass his discussion paper onto the Premier's department, which he did.

It is a well-researched document, reflected in DPC's reply to him that it was "highly useful" information. It included references to advice received by NSW Police in 2001 that, depending on the circumstances, those carrying out drug checking were unlikely to be breaking the law.

But judging by the subsequent comments of Premier Mike Baird and Grant – who rather hysterically said testers could face manslaughter charges – it's apparent that "highly useful" information has either not been passed onto them or is being wilfully ignored.

When asked if Grant has been briefed on Tregoning's discussion paper, a spokeswoman replied: "we don't discuss the Deputy Premier's briefings".

Last Sunday, when asked about the revelation that Tregoning's discussion paper had been passed on to his department, Baird offered a classic head in the sand response.

"I'm not aware of that research," he said. "I'm not aware of that departmental work. But I can tell you whatever gets to my desk or the cabinet's desk, it won't be pursued".

What an extraordinary approach to public policy making. Take a personal position and then wilfully ignore the medical and other experts.

As for the cabinet process, Baird says that even if a responsible minister – say Health Minister Jillian Skinner, who has been missing in action on all of this – brings a proposal forward, it won't be considered.

Baird's position is reminiscent of his predecessor Barry O'Farrell when he was resisting calls – again from health experts – to introduce 1.30am lockouts and 3am cessation of alcohol in high risk venues in Kings Cross and Sydney CBD.

Baird is now one of the strongest advocates for those laws remaining in place, to the point where he risked undermining a statutory review by declaring it would "take a lot" for him to be convinced they need changing.

It's a lesson in how responsible government is about not bowing to special interest groups (in that case the alcohol industry). Nor is it about entertaining personal prejudices.

Surely the proper approach is to gather all of the available information – including from experts in the field – and make informed decisions.

The O'Farrell cabinet – which included Baird – did that on lockouts and eventually, after a media campaign including Fairfax Media, agreed to a trial.

The Baird cabinet apparently won't even be given the opportunity to debate a trial of drug checking.

It's difficult not to conclude that on the question of reducing the damage done by illicit drug use, Baird and Grant have so far spectacularly failed the good government test.

They might want to think about that the next time a young party goer loses their life after taking a pill at a music festival they were unable to get an information about.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/perso...the-good-government-test-20160303-gn9dk0.html

 

[morphine-dreams]

The government attitudes (and statements) on this issue are essentially saying that people deserve to die if they choose to take drugs.
As the death penalty has been outlawed for over 30 years (and the last man hanged was in 1967) - this attitude is frankly unacceptable to me and everyone i have discussed it with. Typically hypocritical bullshit.

I agree with this 100%, and ironically, I know people who held that opinion their entire lives and are now hardcore junkies with like 5 years to live, or HEAVY alcoholics. It baffles me that people would actually actively fight against education, but then again, there are a lot of fucking morons out there.

 

[poledriver]

Pill testing trial swamped with support

Crowdfunding site to harness support for NSW pill testing trial

Two doctors planning a controversial pill testing trial say they have been flooded with donations and other offers of support.

A crowdfunding site is to be launched next week by the heads of a controversial pill testing trial who have been inundated with funding pledges for the project.

Fairfax Media revealed last week that Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Dr Alex Wodak​ and Canberra physician Dr David Caldicott would begin a pill testing initiative at forthcoming Sydney music festivals with or without police or state government approval, potentially breaking the law.

The service, which would enable festival-goers to submit their drugs for purity testing at music venues, will "save lives" according to Dr Wodak.

Dr Caldicott said that in the week since the project had been "out in the open", he and Dr Wodak had been approached by "hundreds" of technically qualified professionals offering their skills and individuals offering donations.

"There is, at it stands, $60,000 for a project that we believe will cost approximately $100,000 or so to run," he said. "We have some significant donors but there is also a groundswell of everyday people who, in offering smaller sums, also want to be part of this."

He added: "Unequivocally, the majority of people who have contacted us do not appear to be from the group of people who use drugs. It's professionals, parents, retirees. We never anticipated this level of response. The project has clearly tapped into a very deep feeling about where we are with drugs policy."

Last week, when Dr Wodak announced his intention to roll out a platinum version of that trial featuring doctors, analysts and clinicians, he was warned by NSW Police Minister Troy Grant that he could face prosecution for drug possession, drug supply – and manslaughter – if he proceeded with the plan.

While debate has raged all week about the associated legalities and ethics, it is by no means new ground.

Fifteen years ago, Fairfax Media reported how a group of young chemists had created history by assembling the first ever Australian pill testing station at a youth music dance festival in Melbourne.

They chose not to publicise the initiative beforehand because, in their own words, they wanted to "demonstrate the benefits before it got cut down and criticised".

More than 70 youngsters stepped up to test the purity of their pills over a two-day period.

An equally important test came when Victorian police and festival security approached the stall. "Once we explained to them the aim of harm minimisation, they were all fully behind it," said one of the organisers behind the scheme at the time.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/crowdfund...ting-trial-20160305-gnbbp4.html#ixzz423mQrZsk

 

[Jabberwocky]

Crowdfunding site to harness support for NSW pill testing trial

Dr David Caldicott says support is growing for a pill testing trial. Photo: Katherine Griffith

A crowdfunding site is to be launched next week by the heads of a controversial pill testing trial who have been inundated with funding pledges for the project.

Fairfax Media revealed last week that Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Dr Alex Wodak​ and Canberra physician Dr David Caldicott would begin a pill testing initiative at forthcoming Sydney music festivals with or without police or state government approval, potentially breaking the law.

The service, which would enable festival-goers to submit their drugs for purity testing at music venues, will "save lives" according to Dr Wodak.

Dr Caldicott said that in the week since the project had been "out in the open", he and Dr Wodak had been approached by "hundreds" of technically qualified professionals offering their skills and individuals offering donations.

"There is, at it stands, $60,000 for a project that we believe will cost approximately $100,000 or so to run," he said. "We have some significant donors but there is also a groundswell of everyday people who, in offering smaller sums, also want to be part of this."

He added: "Unequivocally, the majority of people who have contacted us do not appear to be from the group of people who use drugs. It's professionals, parents, retirees. We never anticipated this level of response. The project has clearly tapped into a very deep feeling about where we are with drugs policy."

Last week, when Dr Wodak announced his intention to roll out a platinum version of that trial featuring doctors, analysts and clinicians, he was warned by NSW Police Minister Troy Grant that he could face prosecution for drug possession, drug supply – and manslaughter – if he proceeded with the plan.

While debate has raged all week about the associated legalities and ethics, it is by no means new ground.

Fifteen years ago, Fairfax Media reported how a group of young chemists had created history by assembling the first ever Australian pill testing station at a youth music dance festival in Melbourne.

They chose not to publicise the initiative beforehand because, in their own words, they wanted to "demonstrate the benefits before it got cut down and criticised".

More than 70 youngsters stepped up to test the purity of their pills over a two-day period.

An equally important test came when Victorian police and festival security approached the stall. "Once we explained to them the aim of harm minimisation, they were all fully behind it," said one of the organisers behind the scheme at the time.


Source: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/crowdfund...r-nsw-pill-testing-trial-20160305-gnbbp4.html