The NSW Government has announced its long awaited drug summit will take place in October and December 2024.
The multiday event will comprise of two days of regional forums in October 2024 and two days of forums in Sydney on 4 and 5 December.
The Drug Summit was an election commitment for the Minns Labor Governent.
The forum will include medical experts, police, people with lived and living experience, drug user organisations, families, and other stakeholders to provide a range of perspectives and build consensus on the way NSW deals with drug use and harms.
The NSW Government will begin initial discussions with stakeholders in determining the terms of reference of the summit.
Premier Chris Minns said that the government was meeting its election promise.
“We know that drug use impacts individuals, families and communities in many different ways. The drug summit will bring people together to find new ways forward to tackle this incredibly complex and difficult problem,” Mr Minns said.
Emma Maiden. is General Manager External Relations and Advocacy at Uniting NSW.ACT.
“We are so pleased that a Drug Summit has finally been announced today and will be held in NSW in October and December in both Sydney and regional areas,” she said.
Ms Maiden noted that the last drug summit took place in 1999.
“Uniting welcomes the Summit as a way for the Government to consider and discuss positive, evidence-based changes to our drug laws and we commend Premier Minns and Health Minister Park and the Government for taking this important step,” she said.
“We welcome the inclusion of regional NSW in the format announced today.”
“As further details emerge about the format, we hope that it can closely replicate the successful format of the 1999 event, when former Premier, Bob Carr, organised a five-day parliamentary gathering which led to Australia’s first injecting room in Sydney’s King’s Cross – Uniting’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC), among other reforms.”
