Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs have the potential to cause harm to people, families and the community. Relying on best practice models for harm minimisation and addressing the stigma of harmful use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs will improve the health and wellbeing of people, and their communities, in the NT.
Principles
The NT Greens believe:
- All substances of dependence, including alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals, have the potential to cause harm to people, families and the broader community.
- Understanding and addressing substance-related harms is best done with a supportive health and social approach rather than a punitive criminal justice approach.
- Harm minimisation strategies should be evidence-based and subject to regular review.
- Everybody has the right to free, accessible, culturally appropriate and high-quality specialised addiction services.
- Poverty, inequality, poor health and a lack of housing are risk factors for substance-related harm. Providing people with the building blocks they need to live a good life is an effective harm minimisation strategy.
- First Nations communities must be given full control over the development and management of harm minimisation policies in First Nations communities.
- Government revenue from the sale of legal substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, should be directly reinvested into harm minimisation strategies.
- The government has a responsibility to manage the price, availability and promotion of legal substances, as these directly impact the amount of substance-related harms.
Aims
The NT Greens want:
- To prevent and reduce alcohol, tobacco and other drug related harms, disease and deaths.
- To increase the accessibility and quality of alcohol and other drug related health services for those who need them.
- To increase education and prevention strategies, such as age-appropriate school education programs and other public health initiatives, to support people to make better informed and safer choices.
- To decriminalise use or possession of illegal drugs and to legalise substances used for medical purposes.
- To work collaboratively with communities with high rates of substance-related harms to develop tailored and culturally appropriate strategies to reduce harm.
- To increase First Nations communities’ control over drug policies, laws, education and programs that impact First Nations communities.
- To promote collaboration of drug and alcohol services with other health and social services, including mental health and domestic violence services.
- To increase the availability of alcohol and other drug health services in prisons, as well as increasing harm minimisation strategies in these places, such as access to treatment for blood-borne viruses.
- To reduce the stigma associated with substance use through education.
- To target the price, availability and promotion of the sale of alcohol using methods which are evidence-based.
- Alcohol regulations that exist within communities to be made by those communities and fit for purpose in their context, recognising that Territory-wide interventions are unlikely to suit the needs of all Territorians.
- A process of community consultation to be mandatory for any proposed plans to open new alcohol retailers.
- To reduce and restrict advertising for alcohol as a prevention strategy, including banning alcohol advertising at sports events or advertising aimed at young people.
- To ensure that the taxes recouped from the sale of alcohol and tobacco are directly reinvested into alcohol and other drug harm minimisation.
- To ban political parties from accepting political donations from alcohol, tobacco or pharmaceutical drug lobbies.
- A drug free sporting environment.