Speaking of petty theft: I live in a bit of a rough area, on a corner; so I have a broad side-strip that I'm vegetating. This afternoon, I bought a bottle-brush and a bag of cow manure from Bunnings; I dropped off the plant and bag and went around to put the car in the shed. Five minutes later, when I went back to plant the tree, the bag of cow manure was gone. I only hope the bastard who pinched it can't read and thinks it's dog-food.

Joe

The social impacts of alcohol and other drugs
use, continue to be pervasive in this country
and include criminal activity and engagement
with the criminal justice system, victimisation,
and road trauma.

Illicit drug offences remain one of the most common
types of crimes for offenders in Australia.

Drug Policy Australia - is a public health NGO -
primarily concerned with promoting new approaches
to minimise the health risks and other harms caused
by the use of both licit and illicit drugs which
affect the well being of all Australians.

"We believe that legally enforced abstinence is
unrealistic and counter productive in modern Australia
which has one of the highest per capita consumption
rates of illicit drugs in the Western World".

Stopping welfare payments is not the answer.
Listening to doctors, the medical profession,
and social groups who work with drug addicts is .

The card may not help people with drug addictions, but it will stop using public money to purchase drugs.

1; All of us can fall on hard times.
2; As to you contributing to help him aren't you retired? How are you putting in to assist him?
SteeleRedux,
1; Yes and, that's why we need to have a guaranteed old age Pension particularly for for wage earners.
2; I have paid taxes of every kind to help support those before me, now I expect those after me to do similar !
You imply that as a pensioner I no longer contribute. I still pay tax whenever I buy something, I pay income tax on my few Dollars from my Super.
I expect the younger generation to go without what they can't afford just as I & many other Pensioners had to.
It is not too much to ask those who deliberately make themselves unemployable to either pull out their finger or exist on the most basic of support because that's what they chose without a care for others whom they expect to cover their expenses !
If they have disfigured themselves to such an extent that no-one wants to employ them then they should form their own community & support each other there. Same goes for drug abusers ! I have worked & paid for what I live off now !

Hi FOXY...

You say; '...Stopping welfare payments is not the answer. Listening to doctors, the medical profession and social groups who work with drug addicts is...'? And the police FOXY, do you think they might have something constructive to add to the conversation like one Police Commissioner stated inter alia '...we can't arrest our way out of this climate of massive drug addiction...'?

The police have stated ad nauseam; *treat the addicts, and **punish the hardcore pushers & suppliers, with long sentences. Does it happen? Most States have tried to initiate drug treatment programmes, but because of the systemic breakdown of the intent of our soft judiciary, the suppliers, pushers, and the 1%'ers generally are slapped with a wet lettuce leaf, and that's after the coppers have put-in hours of good work preparing an airtight criminal brief.

At the risk of annoying everyone; we need the following:-

(a) Robust, mandatory drug laws from our politicians;

(b) Dedicated police, 'drug enforcement squads,' involving the AFP with the initial importation, and the 'Staties' interdicting the distribution, the supply, and arrest of the pushers;

and finally;

(c) Long 'mandatory' gaol sentences, not allowing any 'wriggle room' for the crooks to gain some advantage, from many of the Judges (who hail from the Left), the opportunity to soften their penalities.

Won't stop it, but I'll sure slow it down some?

'Drug Policy Australia - is a public health NGO - primarily concerned with promoting new approaches to minimise the health risks and other harms caused by the use of both licit and illicit drugs which
affect the well being of all Australians.'

HI Foxy

you seem to be making the assumption that this Government funded organisation speaks for the majority of the health profession.

My son has worked as a doctor in emergency centres in a couple of hospitals. I suspect he and nurses dealing with meth addicts would have a different view. I have people who do drugs living on both sides of my place. Maybe 'victims' of crime should have some say.

The injecting rooms recommended by ngo's have turned out a complete failure. Programs like Shalom house in Perth have proved extremely successful which probably gets up the nose of the far less successful Government funded progams. Unfortunately like most Government policy it is blinded by self interested ngo groups often blinded by a false narrative.