City strengthens drug stance
A program to unify Australian council responses to alcohol and drug-related problems has been endorsed by the City of Sydney Council, with an agreement to provide annual funding for the scheme along with other capital cities.
The Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities strategy, developed by the National Local Government Drug and Alcohol Advisory Committee, has tentative support from the council and will go to a vote on 3 November.
The City will provide $10,000 a year to support the implementation of the scheme, which aims to increase local involvement with drug prevention programs rather than relying on federal initiatives.
The framework would also provide a more unified approach for councils nationwide.
It is certainly consistent with what the city already does in attempting to address alcohol and drug-related impacts, the city’s social policy and community support manager Suzie Matthews said.
What it helps to do is build a more rigorous framework for the city to operate within and provides us with a model that not only works with us but is consistent with other councils across the country -” which serves as a means to effectively measure our successes against other councils.
Once implemented, the scheme could bring about real developments in terms of new prevention programs and new levels of cooperation with other non-government agencies like ACON within two years.
This will strengthen the policy response that we already have, Matthews said.
Council last year endorsed a drug and alcohol strategy for the city which provides clear direction about how we address numerous issues, including how we interact with specific communities like the gay and lesbian community and their particular issues and this will just reinforce that.
I think they swap them at certain places for clean ones – its a good system, stops needles being left around for kiddies to step on and prevents some poor girl or guy that they have a one night stand or something with from getting a death sentence.
I believe all drugs should be legalized and for appropriate education to be given as to the risks – people have the right to choose what goes in and out of their bodies. The cultural development of many societies including our own has been enhanced by consumption of psychoactive chemicals.
European society with alcohol, Oriental areas with opium, and South America with cocaine for example.
The and the majority of drugs of abuse in the modern world were developed for their medicinal properties. Often when a hospital patient is in serious pain, the doctors have to give them a less effective drug than available because the more effective drug has euphoric effects. Instead of being able to replace pain with pleasure to comfort patients, doctors are forced to simply numb and deaden the senses.
If drugs were something you could buy over the counter, they would be safely manufactured and there wouldn’t be any violent crime involved in sale / supply. All the thug dealers would be out of business. Just 100 years ago you could buy cocaine in a soft drink! How much less crime was there back then compared to now?
Chris, where are drug addicts able to obtain these free needles. I went to three chemist to buy needles and all said that I had to show a diabetic card. When I asked where I could get them they suggested one place 20minutes drive away. No wonder drug addicts are forced to share needles and take risks, when it is “too much hassle”!
Elliott – until 1994 homosexual acts between consenting adults
were against the law in NSW- some laws are just plain wrong!!!!
lets see you as a gay man in NSW prior to 1984 following your
naive statement- ITS AGAINST THE LAW – STICK TO THAT.
That’s right Elliot, the only way kids will learn not to take drugs is if they see people they know dying in the streets from them- after all that’s only a small price to pay?
We also shouldn’t build fences on cliff tops in case it encourages people to look at the view, and really, when you think about it, seat belts and air bags in cars only encourage people to drive too fast by making it safer to speed, so lets ban those too.
Funny that all the countries who execute drug traffickers and provide no information on safe drug use to the public and schools are still rife with drug use though.
Here’s a little statistic for you- when President Richard Nixon started the Drug War in the early 1970’s the number of people who had used an illegal drug was two percent of the American population- four decades of zero tolerance to drugs and it’s now FORTY SIX PERCENT and America has jailed a larger proportion of its citizens than any other country on Earth. Does that sound like a counter productive policy to you?
The drug prevention programs we have PROMOTE drug use.
Programs these days simply bombard the general public (and schools) with information regarding what the drug looks like, how it feels when you’re on it, street names of the drug and what to do while your having the “experience” to remain safe i.e drink water, take a rest, blah blah, on top of that they provide you with endless listings on where to go if you’re having a bad trip, legal issues with drugs etc – and all this comes in convenient pocket sized pamphlets, flashy colourful posters and offcourse on the so called drug awareness/prevention websites – So instead of becoming a tool for the prevention of drug use, they become informative avenue’s on how to take drugs “safely”.
How can we possibly expect to tackle our drug problem(s) when we are feeding society with “safe tips” on drug use.
ITS AGAINST THE LAW – STICK TO THAT.
Your very welcome.
YOU ! Oliver obviously ARE a bad person if you have that opinion on Hitler who murdered millions of people based on their race, homosexuality or physical appearance. YOU ARE A DISGRACE.!!!PLEASE DO NOT BOTHER PLACING ANY POST IN RESPONSE TO ANY COMMENT OF MINE.
I beleive Hitler wasnt a bad person.
‘NORMAL PEOPLE’…WTF!!! Just listen to yourself Oliver. I bet most of your neighbours in dreary ole’ Kirribilli don’t think YOU are normal…very dangerous language Oliver , think Adolf Hitler!
As you know Chris, I dont have any sympathy for drug users as they CHOOSE to do it. We make a conscious choice about everything we do in life. These addicts end up making life so difficult for a NORMAL person.
Oliver .. the reason injecting drug users get free needles is to prevent them from sharing needles with other injecting drug users . This initiative was introduced in the early 1980’s to prevent the acquisition of,and the passing on of hiv in the injecting drug using population. This prevented the sexual partners of this section of the population from acquiring hiv and has prevented countless people from acquiring hiv and has saved the taxpayers millions of dollars not to mention lives and incalculable heartache and despair.
Why is it that Drug addicts get free needles and yet an ordinary smoker never gets a free cigarette?