News

The theme of ‘Inspiring Inclusion’ on International Women’s Day 2024 is an interesting idea. As people who use drugs (PWUD), especially illicit drugs, we also talk about inclusion, and we have been for a long time. And equity. And parity.

We were lucky enough to sit down with Diane and have a yarn about her experiences and advocacy to mark World AIDS day 2023.

The EVAWUD campaign highlights the need to end violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs and improve drug policies from a feminist, human rights and harm reduction perspective.

I’m Jaye Murray, the President of QuIVAA. Our organisation is dedicated to advocating for and supporting individuals who inject and use drugs in Queensland. My main focus is on harm reduction, human rights, and social justice for individuals who use drugs.

When I started the DOPE program in 2013, you needed a prescription to get Naloxone. Every time I ran an overdose training, I would have to organise a GP or nurse practitioner to write scripts for each of the trainees. Someone else would get the Naloxone during the training so it was ready for the trainees to take home with them. It wasn’t exactly legit, but it was worth it.  

My name is David Baxter. I’m the Programs Coordinator, I also coordinate the Naloxone Program. So I’m one of the leadership team here at CAHMA. I’ve been an employee of CAHMA for about eight years now, and before that, I was a voluntary worker and occasional casual worker for another three years.

There are too many brilliant people to count, all of whom contributed to the Peer Based Harm Reduction Western Australia (PBHRWA) Take Home Naloxone Program. They all put their hearts and souls into building a service that started more than 10 years ago and is still evolving today within the community of people who use drugs.

I’m a Peer-Identified Needle and Syringe Program (NSP) Worker. In my job, I provide injecting equipment to people who use drugs. I also provide health advice on how to use drugs in a safer manner.

I’ve long been a frontline Harm Reductionist, managing 2 of Tasmania’s busiest Needle and Syringe Programs (NSPs) for over a decade. I’m also a narcofeminist and advocate for people who use drugs. I’m extremely passionate about community, especially my local community!

I coordinate a team of harm reduction peers who provide Needle and Syringe Programs (NSPs) and other services to people who inject drugs. We currently have peer workers based at 6 locations in metropolitan Adelaide, from the far southern suburbs to the northern suburbs. The wide reach of our project means that if you live in the suburbs you should be able to access clean equipment, safer injecting information, and support and referrals from a peer worker.

In this session, facilitated by the Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), we will discuss what needs to be included in the national research agenda to support better outcomes for the Australian community of people who use drugs (PWUD).

This online event is for people on or interested in Opioid Dependence Treatment in Australia. We will discuss all the upcoming changes, and what they mean for people currently on Opioid Dependence Treatment, there will be also be a Q&A.

AADC and AIVL joint online event, to discuss changes to the Opioid Dependence Treatment program prior to implementation.

The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) is excited that the Australian Department of Health has moved to reform the ODTP system in Australia

A catch up with DJ Bardi Girl, host of Koori Radios Deadly Human Rights Show.

Announcements from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Health Minister Mark Butler show a new commitment to reduce costs of ODT that have, until now, placed an unreasonable financial burden on consumers. 

At AIVL, we like nothing more than having a good yarn with our Member Organisations. We love hearing about projects and initiatives that are focussed on service provision with Mob

If you’ve been keeping yourself up to date with drug alerts coming out of Canberra’s CanTEST facility then you’ve most likely seen recent drug alerts about the detection of novel synthetic opioid Metonitazene and more generally, Nitazenes. So what are they?

AIVL recently yarned with Monica Ruffy about her work with a peer-based support group for mothers who use drugs, based in Canberra.

The Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) was first incorporated as an association in 1992.  The Australian Stigma Conference is a historic milestone, celebrating 30 years of AIVL, an organisation that remains at the forefront of the response to the HIV epidemic in Australia.  This response has saved many lives by limiting the spread of HIV Aids among

Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/AIVLInc/videos/495570829203545 Today’s conference brings together policymakers, healthcare professionals and people who use drugs to discuss how stigma impacts people who use drugs. You can get your questions and comments into the conversation by using Slido! Go to slido.com and then use the code #AIVLSTIGMA22 To see the Conference Program Schedule go to aivl.org.au/events/australian-stigma-conference AIVL is the

November 1 marks International Drug Users Day (IDUD). Held annually, the day remembers the movements and protests against the significant lack of and access to treatments and services for people who use drugs (PWUD); particularly in terms of inadequate public health policy and response to the disproportionate rates of blood borne viruses such as hepatitis and HIV amongst communities of

On a cold and wet Monday afternoon, AIVL Policy & Project Officer Adrian Gorringe braced the wild weather and joined staff from CAHMA to attend the Family and Friends For Drug Law Reform (FFDLR) (ACT) 27th Annual Remembrance Ceremony. Bill Bush, president of the ACT Chapter of FFDLR opened the event to a considerable turnout. Despite the weather, people, families, and

There is a new drug circulating around Canberra!  One reporter claims it may be so novel, there’s a high chance it has not even seen the inside of Berlin’s Berghain  Nightclub yet. A new compound, described as “Canberra Ketamine” or “CanKet” has been identified by CanTEST; the ‘face to face’, fixed site drug testing facility based in the ACT. The lead

“I don’t know that I would even call it meth anymore…” – Joe Bozenko, DEA Chemist & Professor, Shephard University.Methamphetamine is arguably the most demonised, stigmatised and generally misconceived drug in global circulation. Within the Australian context, we have all seen the confronting, graphic and gratuitously violent imagery of anti-ice advertisements, depicting ‘ice’ users in diabolical fits of rage lashing

Aussies love their stimulants nearly as much as sports! We punch well above our weight on the international level. On the world stage, we just miss out on a podium finish for our average total stimulant consumption, securing 4th place at 59 doses per 1,000 people per day [following Czechia (76 doses), the United States of America (USA; 74 doses),

International Overdose awareness day was initiated in 2001, August 31 will mark 21 years of the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose and remember without stigma those who have died, acknowledging the grief of all those impacted by overdose, whose loved ones have died or suffered permanent injury.

DULF is a collective made up of two drug users and activists fighting against the prevailing system that stigmatizes and kills drug users. They figuratively want to burn down the existing system, replacing it with a more caring and compassionate model. Their logo of flames encircled by flames suggests they want to be at the centre of something volatile and explosive.

Thursday July 21s saw the grand opening of CanTest, Australia’s first fixed-site drug checking service, often dubbed ‘pill testing’. The service is delivered by Directions Health Services in partnership with AIVL member organisation CAHMA and Pill Testing Australia.

AIVL and the important network of community-led organisations working in response to Blood Borne Viruses and sexually transmissible infections have, for decades utilised their limited resources to work in close partnership with each other. Not only have they been the voice of the community at a national level but have also been drivers for getting the community to both engage in healthcare and promote the uptake of harm reduction practices. We remain closely knit in our joint commitment to eliminate Hepatitis C by 2030.

Whenever there are highly desirable restricted products within society, there will be people willing to produce, and sell “knock-offs” of the products. It doesn’t matter if it is a Gucci handbag, concert tickets, or a pill. Within the drug using community, it is becoming more common for the “People’s Choice” of benzos (Xanax) to be mimicked and sold by “bootleggers.”

21 July marks the date of International Drug Users Remembrance Day, a day observed by the International Network of People who use Drugs (INPUD) in conjunction with UNAIDS, to reflect upon the countless lives lost to drug related harm.

Whenever there are highly desirable restricted products within society, there will be people willing to produce, and sell “knock-offs” of the products. It doesn’t matter if it is a Gucci handbag, concert tickets, or a pill. Within the drug using community, it is becoming more common for the “People’s Choice” of benzos (Xanax) to be mimicked and sold by “bootleggers.”

Last month AIVL Staff attended ‘Is it time to legalise drugs?’ a discussion by Drug Policy Australia on Friday June 24. Presentations by Dr Alex Wodak, Dr Annie Madden AO, The Honourable Michael Kirby, The Honourable Bob Carr, Greg Chipp and Emma Maiden covered topics of the harms of illicit drug criminalisation, drug law reform, and the need for drug policies to be viewed within a public health lens, stating that our current drug policies are not assessed on merit but rather cultural and societal ‘norms’, characterised by moralistic righteousness against the backdrop of maintaining diplomatic ties through the established rhetoric of prohibition politics.

AIVL praises Freestone et al. for the ingenuity of their research that has shed light upon some of the lesser understood scenes associated with recreational drug use, and the role of harm reduction, peer networks and ever apparent need for education around overdose and BBV/STI risks surrounding chemsex.

Almost 1700 Australians die of illicit drug overdoses each year. These are peoples’ sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, neighbours, and friends.

The elimination of hepatitis C in a priority group, people who inject drugs, is the goal of a new campaign to be rolled out across Australia over the coming months.

AIVL has raised concerns about the statutory price reduction of slow-release buprenorphine and the potential impact this may have on people who choose MATOD treatment for Opioid Dependence.

With the public view on drug use shifting fast, AIVL would like the elected government in this federal election 2022 to take a more pragmatic and Peer consultative approach while creating policies that affect PWUD

AIVL has raised concerns about the statutory price reduction of slow-release buprenorphine and the potential impact this may have on people who choose MATOD treatment for Opioid Dependence.

Media Release by Jake Docker: Australian Budget 2022-23

How are people assisted with their first injecting experience, and what information do they receive prior? A review of the literature suggests that peer workforces should be expanded and receive more support

Around 900 people die of opioid-related overdose in Australia each year. Opioid Treatment (OT) can protect against opioid overdose. When will governments in Australia take this seriously and widen access to OT?!

Jake speaks about how stigma & discrimination significantly impact the ability of PWUD to access health, support services and experience a sense of recognition in a society that continues to discriminate against PWUD.

This article provides succinct incites on fentanyl, as a medicine, a new drug-related to online drug markets, and a reason to invest more (not less) in community-led harm reduction initiatives.

AIVL calls for the government to prioritise human lives.

Australia ranks relatively highly in the new Global Policy Index. But that ranking flatters Australia’s harm reduction efforts.

AIVL calls on Parliament to allow for greater consultation before the PBS Bill 2021 is passed.

This World AIDS Day (1 December 2021), AIVL is honouring the work of all those who came before us.

AIVL and Hepatitis Australia highlight international calls for NSPs in prisons, along with a greater focus on harm reduction initiatives.

AIVL has expressed disappointment there is little evidence of new investment in the AOD, BBV and STI sectors in the 2019 Health Budget.

AIVL is calling for a greater focus on key prevention and harm reduction initiatives on International Overdose Awareness Day.

The AOD sector calls on governments to make permanent or expand on reforms introduced during the pandemic.

Leading drug and infectious disease organisations unite to discuss COVID-19 impact on hepatitis C elimination in Australia on World Hepatitis Day.

Hepatitis Australia/ AIVL joint project ‘The Juice’ is a dedicated resource for people who use performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs).

The HR23 conference will be held in Melbourne in partnership with AIVL and other harm reduction service providers.

AIVL is calling on governments to heed calls from the UN for an end to criminalisation on International Drug Users Day.

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Drug Testing Trial) Bill 2019 seeks to introduce drug testing for welfare recipients.

AIVL has expressed frustration at the revival of Australian Government plans to impose drug testing on welfare recipients.

AIVL is calling for a greater focus on key prevention and harm reduction initiatives on International Overdose Awareness Day.

AIVL has developed the ‘A Normal Day’ training module to improve comms between health professionals and people who use illicit drugs.

AIVL has welcomed additional investments in BBV, STIs and AOD initiatives flagged in tonight’s Federal Budget.

Peak community organisations today welcomed the release of five new BBV and STI strategies by the Australian Government.

AIVL and Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association welcome the release of five new BBV and STI strategies.

AIVL wants to extend the opt-out period for the government’s ‘My Health Record’ by 12 months.

AIVL is calling for a greater focus on key prevention and harm reduction initiatives on International Overdose Awareness Day.

AIVL has welcomed the Victorian Government’s decision to trial a medically supervised injecting room in North Richmond.

AIVL is calling for a greater focus on key prevention and harm reduction initiatives on International Overdose Awareness Day.

CAHMA, The Connection and AIVL are hosting a community event to open CAHMA and The Connection’s new premises in Belconnen.

New report from AIVL looks at the needs of people living with Hepatitis C after leaving custodial settings in Australia.

AIVL has welcomed more funding for drug treatment in the Budget but is disappointed other harm reduction measures have missed out.

AIVL is calling for a greater focus on key prevention and harm reduction initiatives on International Overdose Awareness Day.

The report makes recommendations for improving hepatitis C treatment for people within or exiting custodial settings.

The Enhancing NSP Service Delivery project aims to strengthen Australia’s NSP system through a peer-led best practice framework.