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Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform was formed as a direct result of heroin
related deaths in the Australian Capital Territory. It believes that prohibition laws are
more the problem than the solution. It seeks laws and policies which will eliminate the
deaths and minimise the health and social harm.
FFDLR believes society should help people come through any drug using
experience alive and as healthy as possible. In other words FFDLR is about
promotion of life and wellbeing. This is more important than being "drug
free".
Its members include parents, siblings, friends, past and present illicit drug users and
other concerned members of the community.
Join
us
Click here to join
We want laws and policies which will eliminate the
deaths and minimise the health and social harm.
In other words FFDLR is about
promotion of life and wellbeing.
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We
are now on facebook
and
GetUp! |
Check
out our cause on facebook
here
>>>
Check
out our GetUp!
campaign
idea and vote
for it here
>>>
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Comments
on draft National Drug Strategy |
The
draft National Drug Strategy 2010 - 2015 was released for comment in
December 2010. FFDLR sees serious flaws with the strategy. These
concerns include: lack of recognition that the laws, policies and
procedures cause harms to individuals, families and communities; lack of
leadership, innovation and consideration of overseas experiences,
including changes occurring in the UN; lack of balance; and selective
use of evidence.
Read
FFDLR's submission here
>>
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Ethan
Nadleman on tour downunder to speak at the Press Club Canberra |
Ethan
Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance - the USA's
leading drug policy reform organisation will be speaking at the National
Press Club, 16 National Circuit, Canberra on Tuesday Nov 23 from 11.45am
- 1.30pm (including time for lunch). Topic: "What Australia
can learn from America's failed war on drugs".
Ethan Nadelmann argues that the political elite in most countries of the
world clearly understand global prohibition has not worked and can never
be effective.
Educated at Harvard and the London School of Economics, Ethan Nadelmann
has often written about drug law reform in the US media as well as many
influential academic publications. He will be travelling across
Australia to warn about the risks of continuing with a failed policy.
He argues the war on drugs is no answer at all, that criminalisation is
not a way forward and the challenge is to reduce the harms and have an
alternative approach based on science, public health and human rights.
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'Candidates
on Drugs'
Find
the report of the forum
here
>>> or listen to the audio here
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![](/web/20110205122020im_/http://www.ffdlr.org.au/images/Forum2.jpg)
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Report
of Public
Forum to hear candidates views on drugs policy
Held on
Monday
9th August, 2010
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Drug policy is an important issue but it rarely gets the rational debate
that it deserves.
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Drugs are implicated in many of our most costly social problems –
homelessness, poverty, mental health, child neglect, family breakdown
and should be of high priority to our governments.
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At election time drugs policy is often only raised on a tough law and
order platform killing off any real debate.
This
event provided the opportunity for a candidate from the Greens, ALP and
the Democrats to answer questions and provide information on their party’s policies
on drug issues prior to the forthcoming election on 21st August, 2010.
The Liberals did not nominate a candidate to speak at the forum.
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ACT
Drug Action Week Launch |
The
address to launch Drug Action Week in the ACT was given by Dr Ken
Crispin, the recently retired Supreme
Court judge of the Australian Capital Territory . He was appointed
President of the ACT Court of Appeal in 2001. He was first
admitted to the Bar in 1972 and appointed as a Queens Counsel in 1988.
He was the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions during 1991-94 and
President of the ACT Bar Association during 1996-97. He has been
Chairperson of the ACT Law Reform Commission since 1996 and
Chairperson of the ACT Criminal Law Consultative Committee since 1998.
In
his address he said this:
"During the last four decades, western governments have waged what has been
described as a war on drugs. New offences have been created, penalties have been
massively increased, law-enforcement bodies have been given new powers, and hundreds
of thousands of people have been arrested and sent to prison. Politicians and senior
officials have constantly told us that they are winning the war, that the
flow of drugs into our countries is being stemmed by the rigorous enforcement of the law, and that sooner or
later the problem will be wholly overcome. I wish I could believe them. I wish I could
believe that narcotics and other dangerous drugs will one day be driven out of our lands
like St Patrick is said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland. I wish I could believe that
there will be no more need for rehabilitation programs, that the courts will see no more
drug dependent offenders and that I will never have to attend any more funerals for young
people who were little more than children when their lives ended in misery and squalor."
Read
the full text of his speech here>>
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![](/web/20110205122020im_/http://www.ffdlr.org.au/images/TxformBlueprint.jpg) |
Transform
is pleased to announce that their latest publication, ' After the War on
Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation' has been launched at an event in the
House of Commons on the 12th of November, with simultaneous launches
taking place in the US (at the Drug
Policy Alliance conference in Albuquerque ), Australia and Mexico.
December will see further launch events in Brazil and the EU parliament.
In conjunction with Transform, the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation are launching this document in Australia on Monday 15 November 2009 in the NSW Parliament House Press
Room.
Greens MLC Ian Cohen is sponsoring the launch, which will be undertaken by Prof Peter Baume (former Liberal Party Senator and Federal Minister and former Chancellor of the ANU) and Philip Adams (broadcaster and writer).
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![](/web/20110205122020im_/http://www.ffdlr.org.au/images/NormStamper.jpg) |
Dr
Norm Stamper from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) spoke at a
public meeting in the Canberra Legislative Assembly on 26 October 2009.
His talk was entitled "The inhumane and unjust War
against Drugs". Listen to the audio of the
meeting here >>
To supplement the audio click here
for a PowerPoint presentation. |
Upcoming FFDLR events
[Forums/docs/Upcoming events.htm]
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Recent Newsletters
[Newsletters/Newsletters.htm]
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Current
issues & events
World developments
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Global state of harm reduction - see IHRA
report here >> and the
poster here >>
Countries that provide
heroin
as an opiate substitution treatment
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Germany
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Spain
Switzerland
UK
Countries that provide morphine
and/or codeine
as an opiate substitution therapy
Austria
France
Luxembourg
Switzerland
The German parliament passed the law
last Thursday evening (28 May 2009) following a careful trial and evaluation
in 6 cities. Eligible persons for admission to the treatment will be those
over 23 years of age and who have been addicted for more than five years and
who have failed to respond to other treatments.
Germany has now joined Switzerland,
The Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom in making prescription
heroin a standard treatment for those severely addicted to opiates who have
failed other treatments.
In 2001 Portugal decriminalised all drugs
including heroin and cocaine. There were many who predicted adverse outcomes
such as rampant drug use, high rates of drug tourism, increased addiction and
related illnesses. However some eight years later, none of these predictions
have eventuated. More
here>>>
Australian
developments
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Copyright notice: FFDLR articles on this website may be freely used
provided that their source is recognised.
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