At NUAA’s recent Peers and Consumers Forum, NUAA’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Charles Henderson gave the keynote address: Driving innovation: the role of NUAA in drug user health in NSW. This is a taste of his awesome presentation.

Alex has been dependent on opioids for 20 years. When conventional treatments did not help him reach his goal of abstinence, he looked to ibogaine treatment. UN interviewed him the week before and 2 weeks after the 7-day guided treatment. Alex’s model of treatment isn’t about not using drugs, it’s about freeing himself from habits that don’t serve him.

Peers On Wheels (POW) is a new pilot project NUAA has launched. The project delivers mobile peer-led testing and treatment services for hepatitis C (hep C). POW is friendly, confidential, quick and easy. POW is visiting a bunch of places in NSW over the coming months. To help spread the word to peers, we interviewed MJ, the project’s Coordinator. 

Dove’s boyfriend of nearly a decade passed from a heroin overdose. She talks about dealing with her feelings of grief and guilt, and his family’s regrettable reaction: “The family blames me as much as if I had put a gun to his head.”

People who use drugs, particularly people who use opioids, sometimes experience a great deal of trauma and loss. This trauma and loss is often not taken seriously. We often lack the support we need because the loved ones we lose are criminalised and “brought it on themselves”. The lack of support can be compounded by our own feelings of guilt and blame. We often believe we could have done more to prevent the death.

Keenan Mundine, an Aboriginal man in his thirties, is a co-founder of Deadly Connections, a service supporting Aboriginal people. Keenan was 14 when he first went into juvenile detention and did many years of jail after that. Keenan believed that this life was just normal. But then he began to question the information that was passed onto him. Today, he is a family man who uses his experiences to walk with people from his community towards the lives they want.

Just because the 'love and universal oneness' vibe is peaking, doesn't mean that everybody has pure intentions. There are still opportunistic dickheads out there.

'For 20 years my life has revolved around that overdose.'

Steroids can take the form of tablets, capsules, oral liquids and injectable liquids. Common slang terms for steroids include ‘roids’, ‘gear’ and ‘juice’. Steroids are synthetic substances that promote the growth of skeletal muscle.

This article takes a look at the effectiveness of filtering pills or capsules. These photographs were made using MS Contin and Kapanol mixed in cold water but can equally relate to Oxycontin and other pharmaceutical drugs. A note here: hot water is dangerous because it can appear to dissolve particles but these will reform later when cooled down - in your veins.  

Ice, crystal meth, shabu … whatever you call it, these tips will help you remain safe when you use it.

Some people who inject drugs don’t have much trouble finding veins, and don’t need to use a tourniquet, while others have always used them as part of their injecting practice. Other people decide to add tournies to their injecting routine as they get older and their veins get harder to find over time. We thought it was timely to do a bit of a review so people could develop or update skills and techniques in using tournies to get the most out of them. 

Legal and safety issues around drugs and sex work.

ACT’s new pill testing service, called CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service, has opened, and Users News got the low-down from Chris Gough, who is the Executive Director (ED) of ACT’s Drug User Organisation (DUO), Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy (CAHMA). Chris is one of the peers who has played an important role in getting the service running.

Most of society doesn’t realise this stuff happens. Shane is a peer worker who lives and breathes NUAA’s mission to advance the health, rights and dignity of people who use drugs. Unfortunately, Shane is regularly stopped by police and his healthy fear of police means he can barely breathe around them — which makes him look even more suspicious.

Katrina is a peer distributor for NUAA in a small rural town in NSW. She’s known she’s had hep C for 6 years but has found it hard to get treated because of the lack of services in her area and past experiences of stigma within a health care setting.

Matthew has a big scar, with an even bigger story. He says it’s the “what not to do” tale that completely changed the way he injects.

Drug and Alcohol Multicultural Education Centre (DAMEC) held focus groups to give a voice to people living in Western Sydney, who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and who use drugs, around their experience of incarceration.

What’s going on with the battle for the decriminalisation of drugs in Victoria, Australia? Harm Reduction Victoria’s CEO, Sione Crawford gives us the lowdown.

Post-election Interview with Bernie Bradley, Queensland Legalise Cannabis Party