Drug Free Australia media releases have long put an emphasis on providing hyperlinks to official sources and statistics to back every claim and to ensure it cannot be targeted with claims of misinformation.
Kerryn Redpath is the voice of lived experience as a former heroin, speed, cannabis and hallucinogen user, and is speaking up to make sure the community understands that illicit drugs harm many more people than the drug user.
Australia’s Harm Minimisation program, initiated in 1985with an emphasis on making illicit drug use safer for users, has created a narrative that the community’s responsibility is to every drug users’ safety while pretending that nobody else is harmed. But around each user is a constellation of people harmed – partner, children, children’s grandparents, siblings, friends, workmates. And despite Australia having state-of-the-art harm reduction programs since 1985, opiate deaths quadrupled by 1999, leading to a Federal Tough on Drugs approach in 1998 which saw those deaths plummet 67%. When scrapped by a new government in 2007, opiate deaths skyrocketed 260% over the following decade with other contributing illicit drugs increasing 210-590%, showing that any approach other than prevention and rehab ironically multiplies drug-related harm to the users themselves – and very steeply.
Drug Free Australia clearly out line concerns regarding Australia present Harm Reduction policy in this paper called (Constant increases in drug-related deaths under Australian Harm Reduction policy). Read More
Kerryn knows all about the harm these drugs did to her as a user, She says,
“At the age of 25 I developed drug-related heart and kidney failure and almost died. I spent just under 5 months in the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, suffering numerous grand mal seizures, comas, at one point complete heart failure and much more. Amazingly, eventually, I did survive but I have been left with life-long consequences and deep, deep regret. However, I was one of the lucky ones. I lived.”
But Kerryn also saw the damage done to her family,
“My partner, who later became my husband, was also a heroin user and he continued to battle his addiction for many years, before I finally realised I was enabling him and ended our marriage. I could write a book about the horrors of living with a person battling addiction. It is soul-destroying, not to mention the impact it has had on our children. I must add there was no violence and my ex-husband loved his children, which made making the decision to end the marriage even more tormenting.”
She has written the NSW Premier with this advice,
“If our Government is serious about helping people who are battling illicit drug addiction, it would help far more users and their families by moving funding from the existing ‘normalisation’ models, such as injecting rooms and pill-testing, into many more dual-diagnosis drug rehabilitation facilities.
“What parent, grandparent, spouse/partner, or son or daughter etc., would prefer their loved one to be hanging around injecting rooms, waiting for their next score and hit, rather than seeking treatment in a well-developed drug rehabilitation program? A program where the drug user would not only physically overcome addiction, but receive professional counselling to heal their whole being. If we really want to make a difference in the lives of people battling drug use disorders and their loved ones, our entire take on dealing with drug use needs a shake-up.”
Drug Free Australia commends Kerryn’s voice of lived experience to Australian media. She is a survivor and a school educator where you could hear a pin drop as she speaks, but whom the alcohol and drug industry has constantly worked to entirely cancel because she does not agree with their ‘safe use of drugs’ ideology.
Contact: Kerryn Redpath
Mobile: 0425 758 751
