A drug summit held in Griffith last year has resulted in a new report including 56 recommendations. Photo: Helen Dalton MP.
A report submitted to the NSW Government following a drug summit held in Griffith, Sydney and Lismore has not called for a reduction of criminal penalties for drug use, despite a push for that to happen from a number of the summit attendees. However, a recommendation for drug checking services at music festivals was welcomed by reform advocates.
The state’s first major drug summit in decades was held to bring together those with lived and living experience, frontline workers and experts in addiction and illicit drug use, who provided their views on ways to reduce drug-related harm and improve treatment. The summit listened to more than 400 participants and received more than 3600 written submissions over four days across three venues.
On Thursday (3 April), the NSW Government received the drug summit report from co-chairs and former NSW politicians Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden.
The report put forward 56 mostly vague recommendations, including increasing funding for drug and alcohol services and treatment. No dollar amount figures were suggested.
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann criticised a noticeable omission among the recommendations.
“The number one priority for the majority of attendees to reduce drug harm was to remove criminal penalties for drug use and possession. It’s extremely disappointing that this was not a recommendation,” she said.
“The report from the drug summit doesn’t go as far as what experts have told successive governments is needed to reduce drug harm and save lives. It’s clear that recommendations sought from a majority of stakeholders at the drug summit have been softened to make them politically palatable for a risk-averse Premier.”
Emma Maiden, the general manager of advocacy and external relations at Uniting, a not-for-profit group that runs drug programs, said after the Griffith summit in November 2024 that a number of participants expressed support for drug use decriminalisation.
“The key theme was that there’s a desire to do things differently,” she said.
“There was a lot of talk of the stigma of the criminal consequences of drug use; there’s an inability to be faceless if you’re going to put your hand up for treatment in small communities. People worry about judgement and discrimination; that’s driving away people from reaching out for help.”
Ms Faehrmann said a recommendation around the need to reform drug diversion laws was welcome.
“The vast majority of people caught with a personal quantity of illegal drugs are still charged and sent to court since the law came into place last year. This reform is urgent,” she said.
She also praised a recommendation for the NSW Government to legislate for a medical defence for people using medically prescribed cannabis when driving.
“There is an urgent need to reform our drug driving laws so that medicinal cannabis patients can drive when not impaired without the fear of being charged with driving with the mere presence of THC [a medicinal compound utilised to manage and treat the effects of chemotherapy]. It’s extremely welcome to see this recommendation in the report. I have given notice of a bill that would provide a medical defence for people who are prescribed medicinal cannabis. I urge the government to work with me so we can get it done this year,” she said.
“The report has recommended the use of drug detection dogs and strip-searching cease during the current trial of drug-checking services at music festivals, with consideration to extending this to all music festivals. There doesn’t seem to be any logic as to why this can’t extend to all music festivals immediately rather than appeasing the police. The coronial inquest into deaths at music festivals found that the presence of drug dogs can lead people to engage in riskier drug-taking behaviour which can have fatal consequences.”
The Griffith drug summit, held in November 2024 was criticised for its Sydney-dominated attendee list.
“I truly wish there was more local input. There was only one person from Broken Hill; she felt there was very little to no input from remote and Far West communities,” local advocate Peta Dummett said.
The NSW Government says it will consider the findings of the drug summit report and “respond in due course”. The report is available to download on the NSW Health website.
