The state government’s long-awaited drug summit is underway in the Riverina. It’s hearing from around 500 experts, medical workers and people with lived experience. The health minister says he wants to find consensus with a new whole-of-government approach to the state’s treatment of drug use and it’s effects.
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00:00Politicians have made their way to Griffith to hear from people like Roxy, a 19-year-old
00:07student who's five months sober.
00:10People who haven't struggled in addiction will never truly know what it's like.
00:14I didn't care what I was eating, what I was doing, who I was seeing, as long as I got
00:19that drug.
00:20She's one of many sharing their stories on day one of the state government's drug summit,
00:25which is aiming to find a new consensus.
00:28So some of the things we suggested, you suggested, are a whole of government approach to ensure
00:34there is a non-judgmental approach.
00:37It feels like there's a big appetite for change, which is exciting.
00:42The state's last wide-ranging drug summit was held under Bob Carr a quarter of a century
00:46ago.
00:47That led to the medically supervised injecting room in Sydney's King's Cross.
00:52Some attendees are hoping this new summit will pave the way for a shift to decriminalisation.
00:57What our organisation would most like to see is increased support for harm reduction approaches.
01:04If they get a charge for possession and things like that, it impacts some of the employment
01:08options that they have.
01:09I think everyone in the room today is being really open, honest and frank, which is exactly
01:15what the government needs to hear.
01:18Organisations in regional and rural Australia say access to support services is limited
01:22and severely under-resourced.
01:25The government has used today's gathering to announce it will fund $10 million towards
01:30treatment services in the Murrumbidgee region.
01:33If you had somebody behind you saying, you're doing a great job and it's great to see how
01:37far you've come and keep going in your recovery, then you're like, oh wow, people are noticing
01:42this is great and I want to continue to do this.
01:46The summit itself will continue in Lismore next week.