Our History

Early Advocacy in Australia

In Australia, people who use drugs (PWUD) illicitly and particularly people who inject drugs (PWID) have been integral in advocating and finding important ways to protect themselves and the community from discrimination and health-related harm since the 1960s.

Formation of AIVL

AIVL, the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League, was formed in the late 1980s by a group of people with experience of illicit drug use and injecting drug use, many of them involved in state and territory Drug User Organisations (DUOs), that came together, during the HIV health crisis of the early to mid-1980s, to coordinate the development of a consolidated PWUD voice at a national level.

Harm Reduction Movement

With the emergence of the harm reduction movement beginning with the needle and syringe program (NSP) implementation in 1986, PWID were a crucial part of the HIV response and success of the harm reduction approach through the development of the peer-led AIVL Network of DUOs, knowledge of the community needs, effective promotion of safer using practices, and early identification and prevention of hepatitis C as an endemic and a preventable issue.

International Recognition

Successes in setting up a groundbreaking peer-led national peak organisation, essential service-delivery state DUOs, crucial NSPs across Australia, and effectively coordinating strategic actions and advancing the needs and wants of our community and priority population are now recognised internationally as exemplary best practice that made of AIVL a renowned and world-leading harm reduction landmark. We are grateful and owe our profound respect to the PWUD who were involved in the emergence of this peer-led movement and responsible for ensuring the continued success that Australia has had in combating stigma and blood borne viruses in our community and became one of the only country in the world with HIV infection rate by injecting drug use is under 2%, actively progressing towards achieving the 2030 HCV and HBV elimination goals, and leading the way towards holistic equity and social justice for all PWUD with opioid dependence treatment (ODT) medication added to our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) in July 2023 and the decriminalisation of small possession in the Australian Capital Territory also in 2023.

Expanding Advocacy

In the more than 35 years since AIVL was formed by a small number of committed peers from across Australia, our advocacy by and for PWUD communities is continuously expanding. Our network is leading the way by being the first to recognise and call for responses to issues including:

• Safer injecting education and resources
• Harm reduction frameworks
• Projects for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) PWUD
• Projects for HIV, hepatitis B and C for PWUD in Asia-Pacific
• Projects and responses by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PWUD
• Research and research ethics relating to PWUD
• Hepatitis C awareness, response and peer education
• Peer Workforce development (PWD), recognition, and peer-led capacity-building
• Take home naloxone (THN) programs
• Responses to harm relating to drugs used at festivals and late-night venues
• Drug checking services
• Opioid dependence treatment (ODTP) program
• Policy and drug law reform
• Prevention of stigma and discrimination against PWUD and PWID

Our Evolving Focus

AIVL now has more than three decades of experience advocating for and working with people who use drugs nationally and in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The organisation has evolved over time and so has Australia’s drug using culture. The early days of being focused on blood borne viruses and people who inject drugs have diversified to include recreational drug using communities with increasing harmful substances and ways of using drugs illicitly becoming more common at festivals, parties and nightclubs. Opioid overdose has remained a constant issue since the 1960s. Take-home naloxone has become far more available across Australia with many people fearing and trying to prepare for a similar epidemic to the one that has been happening in North America since 2015.

Government Investment and Challenges

After more than thirty-five years of community advocacy, the Commonwealth Government of Australia invested in opioid dependence treatment by providing the legislative framework and funding to make it available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. This removes the financial barrier to the opioid dependence treatment program (ODTP) for many people in the community. However, the entire country has a shortage of health practitioners willing to prescribe the medications, and that is a barrier we have yet to overcome.

Recent Progress

With two decades of little change in the harm reduction space, there have finally been small but significant changes in some of the states and territories. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) introduced a drug testing program in 2021, decriminalised cannabis in 2022, and decriminalised all small possession of drugs in October 2023. Victoria implemented the second supervised injecting facility in the country in 2018 and has spent another three years trying to set up the third. Drug checking services are being rolled out in Queensland and condoms are now accessible in prisons.

AIVL’s Role in Change

AIVL and its member organisations have been at the forefront of many of these changes; we have led many, partnered on some and advised on others. AIVL advocated to end stigma and discrimination long before others recognised it was an issue, developing workforce training in the early 2000s. Our advocates across the country have been there to pick up the pieces when we were left out of conversations and unfortunately witnessed the resulting issues that came from not including us from the start. The AIVL Network is committed to continue being a fearless voice, coordinate imperative actions, call out injustices, and request to be at the table every single time our community is affected by a law, a policy, a service or misinformation.