Greens move pill testing, decriminalisation and legalising cannabis bills to save lives.
Recommendations regarding pill testing and police harassment in the draft Coroner’s Report into Music Festivals Deaths are not surprising and must be urgently adopted by the Premier if she is serious about saving lives, said Greens MP and Drug Law Reform and Harm Reduction spokesperson Cate Faehrmann.
Ms Faehrmann will give notice of two bills in the NSW Parliament today: one to decriminalise all drugs and another to tax and regulate cannabis. She also gave notice of a bill to trial pill testing two weeks ago.
“I urge the Premier to start listening to the evidence instead of those out-of-touch voices in her government and the police who are hell-bent on punishing drug users instead of saving lives. This means pill testing at music festivals before summer as well as the scrapping of drug sniffer dogs and strip searching,” said Ms Faehrmann.
“The Coroner’s Report recommendations appear to confirm that the government’s zero tolerance approach is doing nothing to save lives and is in fact putting more young people at risk.
“No government in the world has been able to stop people taking drugs. More and more countries are recognising that the war on drugs has been a colossal failure and are adopting harm reduction measures and saving lives.
“I visited Portugal earlier this year to investigate that country’s drug laws. Portugal decriminalised all drugs in 2001, reducing overdoses and crime and freeing up police resources. That’s why I’ll be giving notice today of my intention to introduce a bill to decriminalise all drugs for personal use in NSW.
“I’m also launching the Greens campaign to Rethink and Reform our dangerous, out-of-touch and out-of-date drug laws,” said Ms Faehrmann.
More information: Ben Cronly 0487 247 960