Interest for a Harm reduction Group in sydney

volunteers needed for a Harm reduction Group in sydney

well it looks like CODE BLUE harm reduction will also be starting in sydney within the next two months,

im wondering how many bluelighters would be interested in volunteering for it..
im trying to arrange a group meeting in sydney to nut out all the details at the moment but expressions of interest would be appreciated

i know DJC and me are at the top of the list but who else...
looks like code blue in sydney may be funded too :

www.codeblueharmreduction.com.au

Sounds interesting

Well what is this group about??

^^ codeblue

I'm very interested in doing somthing for the community. Although I haven't been a member of bluelight all that long I have tryed to read as much as I can in the past few years and keep as knowledgable as I can.

I'm not sure what it is exactly you are thinking of doing in the area of harm reduction as I haven't seen any info yet but if it is in someway similar line to enlighten-hr then I think I could acutally be usefull. I'd love to be a part of it if I can help people out.

Please let me know what it's all about... chances are I'll be willing to join.

Code Blue has a different agenda to a group like Enlighten, however both groups can coexist and work well together.

Originally posted by Ekstasis-//7
I'm not sure what it is exactly you are thinking of doing in the area of harm reduction as I haven't seen any info yet but if it is in someway similar line to enlighten-hr then I think I could acutally be usefull. I'd love to be a part of it if I can help people out.

Click to expand...

Due to the environment in Canberra Code Blue focuses more on Harm Reduction through eduction compared to Enlighten that incorporates pill testing (ravesafe melb assist with other general care issues). CB pushes for pill testing, but can't openly conduct it. When pill testing began in 2000 so too did a Sydney based organisation but that failed because of the climate compared to Melbourne. If Sydney was to focus on pill testing it would be more successful as an Enlighten branch, perhaps similar to what we are doing in Canberra. Enlighten will be creating a Canberra branch with the help of Code Blue in Canberra, as well as an Adelaide branch in the next few months.

madmick: Where is the funding coming from (govt/private)? Are there limitations on this funding? PM me if it is confidential.

I understand that the legallity of pill testing in venues is a big issue here. I thought as much that at the moment there probably wouldn't be much pill testing going on until some laws change. It is nothing to be sneazed at, risking a criminal charge or incarceration to test someones pills. Hat's off to Johnboy at Enlighten... Given the chance I still would probably would risk my own neck to do it too.

Anyway. I'm still have no idea really what you guys are thinking of doing for this initiative. I'm still interested and I'd like to hear more....

Even with no pill testing I think that being able to say have a booth at a big venue with a laptop that has access to pill reports where people can come and ask questions and compare their pill would be better than nothing... There are quite a few people out there that don't even check pill reports or anything and would have no idea if for example they were taking say a commonly identifyable K bomb that everybody who'd checked pill reports knew was going around... Sorry I'm already going off on a tangent is this an ecstacy related harm minimisation initiative or was it for other drugs???

Any way I think if you were to do such a booth at a venue for ecstacy harm minimistaion I think you'd probably need a some half descent advertising around the booth otherwise I think a lot of people wouldn't even bother... Seriously It's pretty poor how little some people know and with the ammount of governement missinformation out there they aren't going to bother unless it's made clear you have something of value. If you maybe stick some pictures around at the booth of a couple of common pills that were going around that had been identified as say either dangourous, K or maybe very high MDxx with something written next to it and a test kit result or whatever and maybe a sign saying "compare your pill here to pillreports before you dump it" or whatever then you may get some people...

Hope I'm not stealing your thread or anything.... I just thought id throw in my 5c worth of ideas...

guys if youre interested in volunteering and need more info please email me at [email protected] and ill send out some info.

Due to the environment in Canberra Code Blue has slightly focused more on Harm Reduction through peer eduction (to get our foot in the door) where we can then push our adulterant testing agenda which is equal to our harm reduction agenda.

in saying that our harm reduction agenda is now diversifying, to include other issues which have fallen by the wayside in current times

as each town has its different needs and we evolved with it so we could have a lasting role in canberra and so that of the few doors we had to get into wern't slammed on us.

what im trying to do is set up a meeting in sydney in about a month on a saturday, where we can meet / work towards making a plan for sydney

bump

I'm keen to help out, but I'd pretty much be restricted to uni hols for the time being. Let me know when your up mick

madmick, can I just suggest that you put out a call through other dance music sites, such as inthemix? I know that got a good response for ravesafe Vic the first time round.

For anyone who's thinking about getting involved in a harm reduction group, can I just say: Do it!! It's heaps of fun and you get to put all your drug knowledge to good use (and learn heaps, heaps more!), as well as meet loads of cool people and go to great events (even though you have to work, you usually still have time to listen to the tunes). Words really can't describe the warm fuzzies you get receiving emails the next week from people thanking you for your help. It's a great reason to give up a Saturday night here and there.

Good luck madmick!

Don't feel that you can't offer any assistance because you have commitments. I'm sure that any time offered would be appreciated, as event planning normally requires quite a bit of organisation.

BUMP

Help out if you can guys, most worthy cause

Ekstasis-//7 If you'd like more info, maybe something in writing, feel free to email me, or PM and i can give you my contact here in SYD. I have some of our brochures here that you can read and get an idea of what we do.

I must say, i'm quite excited at the prospect of getting the SYD side of CB up and running. SYD has been without a HR group for too long.

DJC*

YAY for code blue. I've been asked to pass on a big HI from K, J, A and the rest of the Qld RaveSafe team

The Code Blue guys are the right stuff, so help them out if you can.

The future should hopefully see Code Blue, Enlighten and RaveSafe groups all working together. Lend your support and help their numbers grow, so they inturn may receive more attention (and perhaps funding) from government bodies, health depts, and community groups.

thanks everyone

just a quick thankyou to all those who have volunteered so far or that have contacted us via email,

looks like we'll have five or more volunteers, im trying to arrange a meeting mid august to get everyoine together and do some stat planning for sydney branch of CodeBlue harm reduction
more iinfo soon

cheers again

Ekstasis-//7 Thankyou for your PM. As i said, and madmick has posted, a meeting will be arranged in mid August. We'll keep all volunteers updated.
Thankyou all once again from SYD. :D

DJC*

code blue harm reduction sydney

well the first meeting for ppl interested in joining code blue hr sydney will be on in two weeks

on sat 20th august in wolli creek by the look of things it will be at 7.30pm and go for about an hour, really just drinks introductions and some basic planning

ive emailed all those who showed interest earlier, if anybody else would like to help please do we need all the help we can get
you can contact me mick on the following:

[email protected]
or phone 0414 259 703 (code blue contact number)

cheers ................................. mick

BUMP