People who use drugs, academics and academics who use drugs: PaC 2024 brought together peers and stakeholders
Wednesday 30 October, 2024.
Binowee Bayles from the Metropolitan Land Council gives a welcome to country at the 2024 PaC Forum. Photos courtesy: Divya Lotliker.
Last week NUAA hosted its annual Peers and Consumers Forum, aka the PaC Forum. This 2-day conference is an opportunity for our community to learn, mingle, network and make new friends. Our 2024 PaC Conference had a wide variety of offerings. There were live demonstrations of harm reduction practices by NUAA staff over lunch, panel talks, keynote speeches, stalls, an art sale, great food and a pub visit to boot.
For those who missed it or those who want to get a feel for what the PaC Forum is about, here’s our (by no means comprehensive) summary of the 2024 PaC Forum.
Day 1 summary
Kiah Glasson, a hepatitis C peer worker, opened the forum with a rousing speech and call to action for the upcoming NSW drug summit.
Media misrepresentation and drug user stigma persists, Kiah said. Holding aloft a stained yellow copy of Users News, an early print edition from the 90s, she made the point that people who use drugs are still fighting the same battle decades later.
Kiah encouraged the audience to become involved in the upcoming NSW drug summit. The NSW government is currently seeking input from drug users across the state. All you need to do is fill out this short survey. You may have an impact on the recommendations that come out the roundtable drug summit and, down the line, policy change too!
“We are the best people to change the way people think about drugs,” Kiah stated.
Dr Timothy Piatkowski, the keynote speaker for day 1 of the PaC Forum, gave a rundown on harm reduction practices and policy around Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs – a subject foreign to many in the audience.
Tim made the case from bringing pleasure and “health enhancement” into harm reduction discussions to account for all drugs, especially steroids, his particular area of interest.
Dr Timothy Piatkowski talks at PaC 2024. Photo courtesy: Divya Lotiker.
Tim’s work is equivalent to catching lightning in a bottle. Put another way: Tim’s way of doing research is very rare in the academic world. He is an academic who is open about his drug usage. It’s a taboo topic which is limited to hushed whispers, if it’s discussed at all within the sandstone walls and hallways of Australian unis. It’s also a bold step considering the extremely harsh prison sentences for steroid possession and supply across Australia.
Tim highlighted the importance of his own personal experience as a steroid user in his work, declaring “peer-led research is the gold standard”.
The day ended with Joanna Megan from SWOP NSW, Stacey Sharkey from the Australian Services Union (ASU) and Emad Al Hatu, a Palestinian-Australian activist, providing useful tips on how to engage in advocacy and political organising. How to work with and talk to people you disagree with and how to deal with burn out were big topics of discussion. We hope this panel served as inspiration for those who want to become more involved in politics.
Day 2 summary
“We are still here,” keynote speaker Andrew Heslop declared on day 2 of the PaC Forum.
It was an empowering message for a conference notable for its uniqueness, for giving drug using communities across Australia visibility.
Andrew Heslop expressed a sentiment common throughout the conference: NUAA has touched and saved lives not just through the obvious avenues, such as our needle and syringe program and outreach efforts which address physical health, but through peer support. Members of staff have played direct roles in boosting the confidence and mental health of community members and developing personal relationships with those in need of help. At Users News, we like to think of NUAA’s community as one big family welcoming to all. The 2024 PaC Forum was a reminder that we always have each other’s backs.
Day 2 involved an eye-opening and deeply moving panel which explored the experiences of trans and gender diverse people living outside our big cities. This little discussed topic about carving out and creating spaces for yourself in areas where trans visibility is low provided insights into the incredible work that queer peer distributors, sex workers and union organisers are doing in regional areas not just to address drug use but to help hold the mental health impact of isolation at bay. It’s no easy feat. Peer distributor Ezra, for instance, said they are the only openly trans person in Broken Hill! Interestingly, all speakers agreed they have received the most genuine and caring support in small towns, rather than cities.
The day finished with a panel on centering Aboriginal-led AOD services with First Nations speakers. The discussion crossed a lot of territory, touching on the role of peer support, the continuing theft of Indigenous kids from their families today and the discrimination that mob face both inside and outside of health services settings.
Takeaway messages from the PaC Forum
It takes a lot of bravery for peers to share their personal stories and our congratulations go out to all our amazing panel speakers. We salute you!
We also had a lot of questions and comments from members of the audience, which we love to see. The speeches and panels at the PaC Forum are not lectures. We think of them as more like casual yarns and learning opportunities. In a beautiful moment at the psychedelics panel on day 1, Maureen Steele turned over the mic to a member of the audience, outsourcing her response to a peer, friend and member of the audience with direct experience of using ibogaine to treat opioid dependence, which is what the panellists were discussing at that time.
The psychedelics panel at PaC 2024. Photo courtesy: Divya Lotliker.
The forum was a reminder of how diverse and deep NUAA’s networks are. We had people from Dubbo, Broken Hill, Wagga Wagga attend, and more, and people from all backgrounds. PaC 2024 was truly a melting pot.
We can’t wait for next year.