Australia21 is an independent not for profit think tank, established in 2001.
We commission, conduct and review new research into complex social issues confronting Australia in a rapidly changing global environment.
Our aim is to foster fresh thinking about public policy and provide evidence-based solutions to difficult problems, shaping the best possible future for our nation. http://australia21.org.au/drug-policy/
2017 – 18 Annual Report
Australia21 is proud to release our 2017-18 Annual Report. We did a lot with very little over the period, producing high-quality evidence-based research to ensure a fair, sustainable and inclusive future for all Australians.
We All Pay the Price
Australia21’s groundbreaking report on the health and social harms caused or worsened by current drug policies.
We All Pay The Price explores the complex two-way interactions between the punitive approach to drug use and problems including poverty, social disadvantage, unemployment, homelessness, family violence, child protection interventions, mental illness, stigma, discrimination and suicide. It calls for the removal of criminal sanctions for consumption and a boost in funding for treatment, to reduce the health, social and economic costs of drug harms ultimately borne by all Australians.
Can Australia Respond To Drugs Effectively And Safely?
This is the report of a day-long roundtable of 17 experts and practitioners held at the University of Sydney in September 2015 to consider drug law reform in Australia. Participants included retired judges, prosecutors, senior police, prison and parole administrators, drug law researchers and advocates. Discussion focused on ways Australia could develop safer and more effective illicit drugs policies.
Alternatives to prohibition: Illicit drugs: How we can stop killing and criminalising young Australians
This report follows from a Roundtable discussion held in July 2012 to consider new approaches to public policy about illicit drugs in Australia.
An earlier Australia21 report launched in April 2012 had concluded that attempts to control drug use through the criminal justice system have clearly failed. They have also caused the needless and damaging criminalisation of too many young people, often with adverse life-changing consequences, including premature death from overdose.
The prohibition of illicit drugs is killing and criminalising our children and we are all letting it happen
It is time to reopen the national debate about drug use, its regulation and control.
In June 2011 a prestigious Global Commission stated that the 40-year “War on Drugs” has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. It urged all countries to look at the issue anew.