Welcome to SSDP-MQ's inaugural speech & forum night.
The evening will include presentations by leading Australian drug and alcohol community workers, health professionals and politicians outlining their observations in regards to prohibition's failure as a public policy and their recommendations for reform to improve our current approach to drugs and drug-related problems.
Where: Level 3, Campus Hub, Macquarie University, North Ryde, 2113, NSW
When: Tuesday September 14th, 6:00pm - 9:30pm.
Speaker Bio:
Dr Alex Wodak - Director of the Drug & Alcohol and St Vincents Hospital in Sydney and President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation.
Alex Wodak trained as a physician and, since 1982, has been Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Dr Wodak and his colleagues helped to establish the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, the Australian Society of HIV Medicine, Australia's first (pre-legal) needle exchange programme and Australia’s first (pre-legal) medically supervised injecting centre. Dr. Wodak is currently the President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and is a member of several state and national committees. He often works in developing countries to assist efforts to control HIV infection among injecting drug users.
Rev Graham Long - CEO of the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross.
At the time that Wayside called him into Ministry, Graham was a postie. He'd almost perfected riding a little motor bike when Wayside called him to be their next Minister. In his first life, Graham was a social worker in South Australia, specialising in the field of child protection. Graham trained for ministry from 1979 to 1982. After a few years in church ministry, Graham became a chaplain to Parramatta Prison and he ran a church welfare agency. Academically, after ordination, Graham pursued studies in philosophy achieving degrees from Catholic Theological Union and from the Catholic Institute of Sydney. A Masters with honours degree was halted when a near fatal motorcycle accident changed all of life's priorities in 2001. Graham has been married to Robyn for 37 years.
Tony Trimingham - Founder and CEO of Family Drug Support.
When Tony Trimingham went public about the death of his son from a heroin overdose he was inundated with calls from families suffering the effects of illicit drug abuse. Realising this was just the tip of the iceberg he called a public meeting which hundreds of people attended. From that meeting Family Drug Support was born. After working as a relationship counsellor and group leader for 30 years, Tony used his expertise to develop the organisation. It now runs a 24-hour help line, has produced a parent education kit for families, provides referral and support meetings for those coping with a family’s members drug addiction or death, and offers a course for families called Stepping Stones to Success.
This year, the course won the Australian Drug Foundation’s National Achievement Award for Excellence in Prevention and Education. Tony has become one of Australia’s most effective anti-drug campaigners.
Fiona Patten & Robbie Swan - Leader of the Australian Sex Party, chief writer of the ASP's drug policy, respectively.
http://adlrf.org.au/about/
http://www.thewaysidechapel.com/
http://www.fds.org.au/
http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/policies
The highlight of the evening will be the Q&A session in which our speakers will be made available for your grilling pleasure.
Transport: Nearby parking available. Buses and trains are less than a 5-minute walk from the venue.
There is no door charge for this event. Join us from 6pm in the conference foyer for mingling, snacks and refreshments courtesy of Macquarie University.
Please RSVP by Thursday 9th September so we can get numbers for catering.
This event is proudly supported by Students for Sensible Drug Policy MQ, Macquarie University, U@MQ, and the MQ United Nations Society
