Letter to the Canberra Times – Unpublished
Dear Editor
The column (“Why parenting can’t be outsourced to a pill tester”, January 3, p18) brings a couple of issues to mind.
Firstly John Barilaro, NSW Deputy Premier, by his misleading and dishonest remarks concerning Shadow NSW Premier, Mr Daley’s stance on pill testing, shows he is prepared to use the lives of our young family members in an attempt to score points prior to an election and secondly by blaming bad parenting for young people’s drug use he is virtually discounting the governments’ responsibility for their inability to stop drugs reaching our kids.
Our prohibition drug laws were supposed to prohibit the manufacture, sale and consumption of drugs. Instead they have handed it all over to unscrupulous members of our society who are encouraged by the huge profits. Drug barons reap billions, drugs are produced in an ever increasing quantity and variety with no labeling, no regulation. Crime and corruption flourish and our young people and their families unfairly bear the brunt. And into the bargain parents are blamed.
Pill testing is a small way of mitigating the harms of prohibition drug policy. It is a harm reduction strategy just as the successful supervised injecting centre is in Sydney’s Kings Cross. It is not a panacea but another strategy to add to the kit bag of solutions in reducing deaths and tragedy.
It deserves intelligent, researched based discussion.
Sincerely
M McConnell