Why we need fluoride in our water

Doctors, lawyers, police and alcohol and other drug agencies are alarmed by the new government’s intentions to wind back life-saving reforms for people who use drugs and other substances.

These reforms include Queensland’s nation-leading drug diversion program, pill testing, medicinal cannabis, alcohol harm reduction, and smoking, vaping and tobacco laws.

 

 

Pill testing

AMA Queensland is concerned for the new state government’s stance on pill testing, including temporary sites for events like Schoolies’ Week and fixed locations in Brisbane and Burleigh Heads. 

These services engage people at risk of substance-related harm and direct them to the health services they need. There is no evidence at all to support views that pill testing encourages drug use. 

In fact, the below statistics represent potential lives saved by the program.

  • 16 per cent of people accessing the service chose to dispose of the substance 
  • 25 per cent said they would reduce their dose after speaking with a health professional in the service

The substances checked in our pill testing services are much broader than commonly believed, with many people bringing in prescription medicines they have purchased on the online black market to try to make ends meet in our cost-of-living crisis. Households are struggling and pill testing services could save the life of someone who has tried to purchase cheaper medicines instead of leaving their health condition untreated.

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Drug diversion

Legislative changes made in just 2024 entrenched a health approach to illicit drug use, including for prescription medicines, meaning people were encouraged to seek help and get the treatments they need rather than being funnelled into our criminal justice system. 

This program, fully supported by medical, nursing, health, police and AOD agencies, has only been in place since May 2024 and needs more time so its effects can be properly evaluated. 

Early indications are very positive, with 7,000 people already diverted (as of November 2024), saving tens of thousands of expenditure on our courts and police while ensuring patients receive necessary health treatments. 

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Drug diversion media

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Alcohol-harm related laws

Doctors are concerned at comments by the Premier that they will water down Queensland’s alcohol harm reduction laws, including safe night out precincts and lock-out laws. 

Our overworked emergency department (ED) clinicians do not need extra patients clogging up ED waiting rooms with completely avoidable trauma and illness from alcohol-related violence and consumption.
 
The government must put people’s lives ahead of the profits of the liquor lobby and maintain these laws

 

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Medicinal cannabis

Acting on the concerns of psychiatrists and ED doctors, AMA Queensland along with RANZCP, RACGP and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia have been calling for urgent, better regulation of medicinal cannabis. 

The rapid increase in prescribing and use of medicinal cannabis across our state is alarming, with a 2023 RANZCP report showing Queensland’s rate of prescribing is higher than that of all other jurisdictions combined. 

Patients, particularly those with psychotic illnesses, are suffering significant adverse health outcomes from inappropriate prescribing and use of products with highly potent concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol. This includes patients with no previous history of mental illness presenting to our EDs with psychosis after using these substances. 

AMA Queensland calls on the government to continue to work with its Australian Government counterparts to take swift action to improve the regulation of medicinal cannabis products, focussing on unethical business models

 

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Smoking and vaping laws media

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    Opioid

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