It’s been four years for our organisation, Ted Noffs Foundation, calling for more than the old “just say no to drugs” strategy. It’s been an uphill battle to say the least.
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But, beyond the policy and the politics, how many of us stop to fathom the personal loss for these families and for the lost potential of the young person themselves?
At these times I look at my children and the thought of losing them breaks my heart. As a professional I have helped countless young people away from drugs and alcohol. Despite this, I know my own children won’t be immune to drugs. Losing a child to drugs can happen to any family.
As a mother myself, it's impossible not to imagine the heartbreak of the mothers and fathers for whom the happiest time of the year has become the worst moment in their lives.
There are people – parents and politicians alike – who don’t want to talk about other options. Who are hoping that the issue of drugs might just fade away.
But like many other parents, I am all too aware that these issues don’t fade. They just face a new generation of young people and a new generation of parents.
Drugs won’t disappear by blindfolding ourselves to it. Neither punishment, nor court attendances nor jail time has worked to prevent young people using drugs.
We have been doing that for more than 50 years now. If being tough on drugs worked, we wouldn’t see kids at festivals being hospitalised at the rates we see today.
Whenever I’m writing in a professional capacity, the health professional in me has been trained to be stoic and even-keeled. But the mother in me is sick of it. Sick to death of the dying.
The mother in me is crying out to those in power – listen to the parents! A vast majority of us want something more than your words. We want you to hear the evidence.
We need as many safety nets as possible. Pill-testing does not condone drug use. On the contrary – it is one more chance for a doctor to talk to a young person, who has already made the decision to use drugs, about the dangers of what they are about to do.
If programs like this condoned drug use, the injecting centre in Kings Cross would have sent a signal that heroin is OK to use. But instead there has been a significant decline in young people injecting opioids.
So enough with the ill-informed politics.
Enough with the scare-mongering – the politics of blaming the parents, or the young person or “bad choices”. None of these political tactics will keep our precious children safe.
This is about saving lives by casting better safety nets. We all need to work together to provide as many interventions as possible.
The evidence on pill-testing has been pouring out of Europe for decades. Pill testing reduces harm and does not increase drug use.
Still, my mind goes back to the mother and father who have a funeral on today. A time when everyone else is celebrating. There are families out there today whose children will never see 2019.
Enough with the words. We want our children to come home – alive.
Naomi Noffs is a social worker and the co-founder of the Street University's Ted Noffs Foundation.
