Media Statement by Fiona Patten MP
A torrent of evidence and news shows drug law reform is more urgent than ever.
The clear failure of the current approach, based on prohibition rather than harm minimisation, is needlessly causing widespread death and suffering, wasting billions of taxpayers’ dollars each year, and creating a massive black market dominated by organised criminals.
On this International Overdose Awareness Day, I urge Victoria Police to equip every law enforcer on the beat with naloxone nasal spray, which reverses the effects of opioids.
More broadly, a compelling confluence of information underscores the need to treat substance misuse as a health issue, not a criminal one, and buttresses the argument for decriminalisation and regulation:
- The Victorian coroner reported heroin overdose deaths are down by 60% in the area around the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room, compared to a 15%-20% in the rest of the state.
- But the same report showed the number of accidental drug overdoses in the state (three-in-four of which involved drug cocktails containing prescription opioids) remains tragically high – as many as 500 in 2021, five times the road toll.
- Respected, independent medical research body the Burnet Institute called for decriminalisation.
- The ABC investigations unit revealed people seeking opioid replacement treatment to recover from addiction are unable to access this life-saving treatment for sometimes more than a year.
- The ACT is set be become the first state or territory government to decriminalise possession for personal use of all substances.
All this comes amid news of the discovery of a shipment of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin causing an epidemic of overdose deaths around the world, at the Port of Melbourne.
It would be naïve to think more is not arriving. Drug testing, particularly pill testing facilities at music festivals, should be introduced.
And it comes as the community debates the establishment of a second safe injecting room is Melbourne’s CBD. The facility in North Richmond has saved hundreds of lives.
Today, the Burnet Institute said: “The ongoing criminalisation of drug use contributes significantly to health and community harms, including the transmission of blood-borne viruses, overdose, and entrenched social and economic disadvantage…The decriminalisation of drug use and drug possession for personal use will help to reduce stigma, deaths from overdose and discrimination towards people who use drugs.’’
The Government did not support my recent Bill to decriminalise drugs and get people into treatment, not prison. But it has convened an expert working group to examine a trial diverting to treatment and counselling all those apprehended with small amounts of illicit substances.
Drug law reform is happening the world over, minimising harm from addiction and misuse. It is inevitable here, and the longer we hesitate, the more people will die needlessly.
