A broad range of Burnet Institute research including insights into the impact of a safe injecting facility on public amenity, the impacts of incarceration on drug use, and the role of research in strengthening harm reduction, is being showcased at the 27th Harm Reduction International Conference, HR23, underway in Melbourne.
Hosted by Harm Reduction International, HR23 is set to be the year’s biggest global gathering for the harm reduction community and an important forum for professionals working in public health, human rights, drug policy and services for people who use drugs.
Among the estimated 1,000 delegates from over 80 countries including frontline service providers, policy and decision-makers, UN officials, activists and people who use drugs, Burnet’s Bianca Whiteside, Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby and Dr Anja Busse will present their latest work.
In her keynote address to open HR23, former New Zealand Prime Minister and Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) the Rt Hon Helen Clark highlighted the ‘total failure’ of the War on Drugs over the past six decades.
She said the longstanding global prohibitionist approach towards drugs has led to HIV and hepatitis C infections among people who inject drugs and excessive incarcerations of people who use drugs.
“There are very, very serious consequences for human rights and health and wellbeing in the current international approach,” Clark said.
“We’re not dealing with new issues here, but we’re dealing with totally inappropriate and wrong ways of tackling them.”
Since its inception, Burnet Institute has played a major role in the development and implementation of harm reduction services, policy and practice.
Focused on hard-to-reach populations at risk of experiencing significant vulnerabilities, we have supported initiatives ranging from needle and syringe programs through to social media-based interventions designed to reduce risky alcohol consumption among young people.
We expect to strengthen these efforts over the coming decade and focus on neglected harms such as opioid overdose and responses in developing countries and develop new evidence on the effectiveness of key harm reduction interventions such as supervised injecting facilities.
We’re also working to ensure better health through changes to structural environments including drug law reform. Housing initiatives and other measures to address key drivers of harms.
Click here to find out more about Burnet’s Harm Reduction research.
