Australian Greens Leader Dr Richard Di Natale has called for governments across Australia to urgently adopt pill testing, following another tragic death at a Sydney dance party on the weekend.
\n\u201cMy heart goes out to Callum Brosnan\u2019s family and friends, following his tragic death in Sydney as a result of an avoidable drug overdose. Dance parties are a rite of passage for so many young people \u2013 and it\u2019s shocking that this one night has ended in tragedy,\u201d Di Natale said.
\n\u201cIt is an appalling indictment on this country\u2019s political leadership that we need to keep on issuing condolences for drug deaths, when they could have been prevented by pill testing. Going to a party shouldn\u2019t be deadly, and it\u2019s devastating that we face having to make the same plea after every avoidable death.
\n\u201cNo approach can entirely prevent deaths, but we owe it to people to pursue options that actually work. Despite what the Premier would want you to think, strict policing doesn\u2019t stop drug usage, and in fact drives people to riskier drug taking.
\n\u201cThe NSW Premier\u2019s tough new laws have already failed, and Gladys Berejiklian should be prepared to explain to the parents of this young man, and those who were injured, as to why she is not following the evidence.
\n\u201cPill testing works. It gives people vital information about drugs they\u2019ve already decided to take, potentially helping them and others avoid harmful contaminants or overdosing on a particularly potent pill.
\n\u201cThe Australian Greens approach to pill testing puts people in touch with a health practitioner, giving them advice about the impacts of drug use and information about the contents of their drugs. This is important for young men in particular, who are less likely than other groups to seek out medical advice.
\n\u201cWith three more major dance parties coming up in Sydney between now and January 26, we must act now if we\u2019re serious about making sure this tragedy isn\u2019t repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian Greens Leader Dr Richard Di Natale has called for governments across Australia to urgently adopt pill testing, following another tragic death at a Sydney dance party on the weekend. \u201cMy heart goes out to Callum Brosnan\u2019s family and friends, following his tragic death in Sydney as a result of an avoidable drug overdose. Dance … Continue reading “Another tragic drug death shows hard-line approach failing to save lives”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}