Recommendations from Working Groups in the Drug Summit

In the very last session of the Drug Summit, representatives from the working groups collated the top priorities from each theme after being voted on by the people in the room. The longer list of priorities was discerned from 4 days of the Summit, and the 3600 responses to the NSW governments online Have Your Say survey. Below is what was voted as the top priority of each theme.

Safety And Justice 

  • Decriminalise drug use and possession 
  • Introduce Drug Checking Services 
  • Stop the use of drug detection dogs at music festivals and in public spaces 
  • Stop strip searches for suspected drug possession 
  • Review of EDDI including: enhanced eligibility, removing police discretion, consistency between EDDI and the Cannabis Cautioning Scheme and a clear evaluation framework 

Keeping young people safe and supporting families 

  • Introduce drug checking services 
  • Improve cross-agency partnerships, including wraparound services and coordination between health, mental health, education and justice supports 
  • Enhance access to treatment and support for children and young people 
  • address stigma and improve families and young peoples access to services and support 
  • Implement school-based harm reduction education and resilience building programs including out-of-hours school programs and community events 
  • Create multidisciplinary team hub models 
  • Improve alcohol and other drug education in schools and the community 

Health promotion and wellbeing 

  • Legislate to reform use and possession of drugs for personal use 
  • Introduce drug checking services 
  • Increase place-based local services that build community capacity and connection 
  • Enable more supervised injecting facilities (SIFS) by removing the legislative restriction to one facility in NSW 
  • Enhance funding for prevention and early intervention programs 
  • Expand peer workforce across the spectrum of AOD services, including Aboriginal peer workforce 
  • Increase funding for AOD treatment services including detox and post-treatment support services 

Equity, respect and inclusion 

Though recommendations were discussed in this working group, these were not voted on due to the lack of cultural safety provided in the space at the Summit. Chairs from this group reflected their thoughts, which we have attempted to capture in this section. 

The people who reported back said it was difficult to talk about this topic because there was a fundamental lack of equity, respect and inclusion in the Drug Summit itself.

First Nations people have not been included in the Summit and have not felt safe to express what they wanted, and their recommendations have lost vital meaning. They urged the necessity of a Summit that needs to be Aboriginal-focused – bringing issues of child protection, incarceration rates and other issues that disproportionately impact First Nations communities. They also called for a First Nations AOD Strategy, to reflect the specific community need, where 1 in 4 people seeking treatment are First Nations. 

There was also a call out in the room in regard to the lack of trans representation. 75% of trans people in NSW don’t feel they get adequate healthcare, and trans people are significantly more likely to use drugs than the general population. 

Overall, there was a call for meaningful consultation and community lead work – the culturally and linguistically diverse community was an afterthought within this process, as well as in the AOD sector in general.  There was a final call for transparency – about the Summit and about the report that will ultimately be handed down. It ended with a stark reminder: these are policies that affect lives every day.

Integrated support and social services 

  • deliver a whole of government strategy focusing on AOD as a health issue 
  • adequately fund existing AOD services to meet demand 
  • Integration and co-location of AOD services with other health services (e.g mental health, dental and primary care) 
  • Strengthen collaboration across sectors, including GPs, NGOs, and community services 
  • Fund long-term, outcome-focused models to improve workforce retention and service stability 
  • Address barriers to service access through increased investment in housing, prioritising housing-first models and transport.