Thread by @CroakeyNews

Afternoon sessions at #RethinkAddiction are beginning with a panel discussion on the impact of criminalisation (virtual view!), led by @FaineJon

#RethinkAddiction @baden_2002 @FFDLR @renaerocket

. @baden_2002 talking about being locked up re drugs issues, on release the pandemic loomed and all his supports dropped away. "I wasn't doing too well." His mother sought support & police were called - "I was treated as a criminal and it didn't go well." #RethinkAddiction

Baden Hicks talks about being taken by ambulance, sedated, to hospital, handcuffed when he woke, taken into a holding cell for 4 days, not given mental health medication, going through withdrawal, deprived of sleep, then (due to COVID) put into iso in prison #RethinkAddiction

Need more education, "not just drugs are bad, drugs are bad", says Baden Hicks #RethinkAddiction

Here's more about his story and harm reduction efforts here at @GuardianAus

theguardian.com/law/2022/mar/0…

"We just need to get more people to speak out. That's why I'm up here," says Baden Hicks, invited to talk about a system where so many drug users end up in prison and come out more harmed than when they went in. He also wants to talk re therapeutic drug use #RethinkAddiction

Marion McConnell (founding member of Families & Friends for Drug Law Reform @FFDLR), whose son died from a drug overdose 30 years, and of her journey into drug reform campaigning after seeing how police scared him and treated her as if she was a criminal too. #RethinkAddiction

Marion McConnell says it was powerfully evident that drug laws were "hitting the wrong people" and she has spent decades since seeking to raise awareness and bring about change to prohibition drug laws that stigmatise users and their families #RethinkAddiction

"You do become weary trying to get across the same message over and over again," says Marion McConnell. Asked what keeps her going, she says it's is simply "the drug laws are wrong, they are simply wrong, they were made for all the wrong reasons". #RethinkAddiction

"I don't think it's ruined any of my friendships but I know where I can speak about it and where I can't," says Marion McConnell, but adds she is heartened that drug law reform is no longer a dirty word. Services providers have shifted from 'just say no' @FFDLR #RethinkAddiction

Marion McConnell says many politicians and police are still barriers to drug law reform #RethinkAddiction

. @renaerocket: parents met in jail, was using weed at the age of 6, at 13 got kicked out of home, lived on the streets...in and out of jail for most of life, mostly for poly-substance drug use, in rehab many times, no good support "so I got a bit cranky". #RethinkAddiction

Now @renaerocket has "my dream job", working with @JailingsFailing - "I realised my voice has been heard for the first time in my life and what I was saying was freakin' important." #RethinkAddiction Hear more here: via @birdseyepodcast (ep 1) birdseyeviewpodcast.net

. @renaerocket always felt misunderstood, "never had my opportunity to tell my story", doing so via @birdseyepodcast meant she had control over the process was liberating. "I feel so empowered", she says talking about the total loss of control in prison #RethinkAddiction

"They set you up to fail," says @renaerocket about the punitive approach to addiction #RethinkAddiction

Now hearing from Keith Banks (former police officer in the "bad old days" in Queensland and author of Drugs, Guns & Lies keithbanks.com.au/store/p/drugs-…). He talks about the terrible toll of heroin back in those days that prompted him to volunteer for undercover work #RethinkAddiction

Keith Banks said by the time he left undercover policing he was "pulling cones with bikies, drinking like a fish". He resurfaced with a completely different approach to drugs: "decriminalise, decriminalise, descriminalise...prohibition doesn't work, never has." #RethinkAddiction

Aust has ignored the lessons from the US/Europe on war on drugs, why? Keith Banks says police commissioners, appointed by the govt of the day, are bound to support their agenda. Group think ("all druggies are bad" as you rise through the ranks. No lateral entry #RethinkAddiction

. @FaineJon says leading police, judges all speak out against war on drugs but not until they leave office. Says police unions have enormous role to play: given the frontline officers see it more starkly than nearly everyone else, why so conservative on drugs? #RethinkAddiction

Keith Banks talks about the need to change culture in police forces to one of "empathy & human connection", admits it's hard when faced with violence/risk, but it's also about cynicism and the need to hear from drug users, to learn they are not "just offenders" #RethinkAddiction

"You need to have cultural change in the academy," says Keith Banks, agreeing with @FaineJon re levels of drug/alcohol abuse among police, paramedics, doctors, in the judiciary, often due to PTSD. Should not be seen as police vs users, a conversation for all #RethinkAddiction

Black and white 'victim/offender' lens much due to media, says Keith Banks #RethinkAddiction

Many of the issues in Australia go back to colonisation and our penal system, says Marion McConnell: notes @FFDLR has made many offers that have not been accepted to talk to police and police academies #RethinkAddiction "Changing culture is the big thing."

Asked re hopes for change, Baden Hicks says criminalisation creates a lot of police/corrections jobs, gets politicians a lot of votes, and is subject to fear-mongering from media #RethinkAddiction

"I remember sitting back at school when they were talking about drugs and I was as high as a kite. Drug use is normal, so many people use drugs....there are healthy ways of using drugs and unhealthy ways. Education is key." @renaerocket #RethinkAddiction

Marion McConnell says safe use messages for those who go on to use drugs are important, eg don't use with other drugs, make sure you're with someone else - been frowned on as encouraging, but can keep people alive, eg pill testing in the ACT #RethinkAddiction

"The war on drugs was lost before it was started." Keith Banks says the community needs to speak out. #RethinkAddiction

Q from the audience re why most in power don't speak re failure of the war on drugs until they've left office: wants #RethinkAddiction to tell people in power to at least refrain from "crush(ing) people who try to speak up & listen to messages that may be complex & challenging".

. @renaerocket urges people/orgs at #RethinkAddiction to sign up to @JailingsFailing, the Justice Reform Initiative - #jailingisfailing justicereforminitiative.org.au

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