Insights

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.

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