5th Sep 2017, 5:24 PM – Senate Motions - International Overdose Awareness Day - Address harms of drug use

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Victorian Senator Richard Di Natale (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) 31 August 2017 marked the 16th annual International Overdose Awareness Day, commemorating all those who have died or been seriously injured due to drug overdose,

(ii) annual accidental drug-related deaths are now more than double the road toll,

(iii) Aboriginal people are drastically and tragically over-represented in our overdose death numbers at a rate of 18.3 per 100 000 compared with 5.9 for non-Aboriginal people, and

(iv) the significant increases in deaths related to pharmaceutical opioids continue to rise; and

(b) calls on the Government to urgently address the rising rates of harm associated with drug use by implementing and appropriately resourcing evidence-based harm reduction policies, including:

(i) greater access to needle and syringe programs across the country, including urgent rollout of trials inside prisons,

(ii) expanded access to medically supervised injecting facilities across Australia,

(iii) promoting awareness of the life-saving opioid reversal drug naloxone, highlighting its availability over the counter in pharmacies,

(iv) working with state and territory governments to cease the use of drug sniffer dogs at festivals and introduce urgent trials of pill testing during the upcoming festivals season, and

(v) speed the introduction of real time prescription monitoring of pharmaceutical opioids.