Drugs; where we get them from and who takes them has been a topic of major discussion this year. And rightly so, following the drug-related deaths of five young NSW festival goers in recent months. Lot’s of people have campaigned to have the Australian government bring in pill testing practices at festivals in hope that if people discover the exact ingredients of the drugs they are taking, they will be less likely to ingest them. Other’s are in conflict with this, no shocks so far.
Those not in favour say that if pill testing becomes the norm, young Australian’s will be more encouraged to take illicit drugs.
Controversial drug reformer Dr Alex Wodak wants ecstasy to be regulated and sold in chemists. #9Today pic.twitter.com/WHRE0Q6q6l
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) January 29, 2019
This morning, on the Today show, Dr. Alex Wodak, head of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation spoke out about an idea to regulate and distribute substances such as MDMA, Marijuana, and Ecstasy at chemists. The intention behind the idea is simply that by regulating the drugs, impurities can be eradicated and therefore more deaths regarding contaminated drugs (not overdoses) will be eradicated which will, in practice, reduce drug-related deaths as a whole as well as preventing amateurs from making the drugs.
“You can’t prevent deaths completely. But if you reduce them a lot that’s well worthwhile,” Dr Wodak.
Dr. Wodak has been campaigning not for drugs to be legal and taken without care, but for the risk to be minimised as much as possible. “I’m not saying (it’s) safe, I’m saying it’s safer. Nothing is safe — it is only you can reduce the risk, you can’t eliminate the risk. And we should try to reduce the risk.” he told the Today show. We know that a lot of young Australians are going to take drugs, despite what anyone says, so minimising the risk of death when taking them seems like the least we (and the government) can do in order to protect people.
Part of problem is absolute terms like ‘safe’, ‘solution’. No drug is ever 100% ‘safe’. There is no ‘solution’ to drug problems. But we know enough now to reduce drug-related deaths, disease, crime, corruption & violence if could get parliaments 2 support reform. They will 1 day https://t.co/fnrhl0RSBC
— Alex Wodak (@AlexWodak) January 30, 2019
So far, there have been mixed reactions, but we’ve already seen how divided the country is becoming over the matter. Which only means that there isn’t exactly an end in sight as of yet. An outcome as to pill-testing, drugs and the legality of it all is likely to take years to decide, let alone implement into society. So don’t get your hopes up yet, folks.
Image Source: Stoney Roads, The Daily Telegraph
