Users News investigates police responses to mental health emergencies and the possibilities and realities of alternative first responders. This is a deep dive into the options available to you in a time of severe mental distress and why police may not always be the best people for this job.

There is an ongoing clinical trial of giving psilocybin (the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms’) to help people who are living with a methamphetamine (‘meth’ or ‘ice’) use disorder. Maureen Steele is a Peer Worker who helped design the trial to ensure it gives users what they need to succeed.

“LSD, MDMA, ketamine, ibogaine: for years I tried any potentially therapeutic substance I could get my hands on. I found my way to empty rooms in quiet places and would take these drugs while listening to music, hoping to find a path to peace.” Al talks about his own experiments with psychedelics, shares insights about how psychedelics have given him a tool, but not the answer, for dealing with mental health issues and speculates over whether psychedelics may be useful in increasing the well-being of society as a whole.

Kira is, in her own words, “a young woman who has been through a lot” but, writing from jail, she tells how she’s re-taking control of her life and shares what she has learned. “For me, the secret to change is to focus all your energy not on looking back fighting the old, but on building the new you,” she says. “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you like but take the step! It takes courage and resilience to be who you really are in a society that mostly denies your existence.”

I first sought out an ADHD diagnosis when I was 23, and the psychiatrist told me, “No, actually you just have the learning capacity of a 16-year-old due to your drug addiction.” Yikes. It took me a couple of years to wrestle with that message – to make sure I rejected it on a deep level – before I tried again with another doctor. And boom, I was right: my ADHD scored off the charts. No wonder amphetamines help my brain feel regulated.

When you’re beginning your journey of drug use, it is easy to get a bit overenthusiastic and end up lost, especially when you don’t have any elders around to help guide you. Akshay spent a lot of time worrying that cannabis and LSD had given him drug-induced anxiety, depersonalisation and psychosis, but he eventually realised that the people who were trying to help him held some negative attitudes towards drugs, and he needed a more supportive — and experienced — community around him.

Jack’s friend became mentally unwell and he desperately wanted to help but unfortunately, he started to burn out. Jack talks about what you can do to support a friend, and how to set healthier boundaries.

Kate is a proud Aboriginal woman who has a history of injecting heroin. She wants to share her unique experience of clearing hep C twice, nearly 2 decades apart. Her first treatment was in prison in the early 2000s, with Interferon. Soon after she got out of prison, she got hep C again and didn’t get treated until 2019. Getting treated a second time has been life changing for her and she now supports peers with hep C and drug use.

Pat is a gay Aboriginal man with bipolar. He shares what it’s like to get caught with drugs and then be noticed by police for the rest of his life.

What is leadership and how can we — people who use or have used drugs — exercise it?

Guest editorial by Mary Ellen Harrod, NUAA CEO

‘The relief and validation of talking to peers who had been through the same journey was pure magic.’