A Mixed Bag for Our Community: Breakdown of the NSW Government’s Drug Summit Response
Friday, 7 November, 2025
The NSW Government has delivered its response to the 2024 Drug Summit Report, and there's both progress to acknowledge and work still to be done.
The government supported or supported "in principle" over 50 of the 56 recommendations – a significant commitment that reflects months of consultation with over 700 Summit participants and 3,669 written submissions.
While many in our community and the sector had hoped for bolder reform, there are genuine wins here that will make a difference to people's lives.
What did the government support?
To be fair, the government did support or support "in principle" over 50 of the 56 recommendations. Some wins include:
A 10-year Alcohol and Other Drug Strategy
This is something NUAA and the sector have been pushing for, and it's good to see a commitment to long-term planning underpinned by harm minimisation. But we need to see the detail. A strategy is only as good as its implementation and funding.
Reforms to the Early Drug Diversion Initiative (EDDI)
The government plans to address restrictions around possession of multiple drugs, criminal history, and threshold quantities. This is welcome news, given that only 6.4% of people have been offered diversion since EDDI began in February 2024. But the real test will be whether they remove police discretionary powers, which NUAA identified as a key barrier to fair implementation. Data from the old Cannabis Cautioning Scheme showed that non-Indigenous people were four times more likely to receive a caution than Indigenous people, and wealth played a huge role – 75% of people in North Sydney got cautions compared to just 24% in the Upper Hunter Shire. When the review of the EDDI initiative takes place, it needs to be an open conversation and provide an opportunity for community consultation.
Drug checking trial
A 12-month trial of drug checking at music festivals has been in place since early 2025, which is a step in the right direction. NUAA has been integral to making this happen. We've advocated for drug checking for years, and our expertise and the lived and living experience of our community have been central to shaping the trial. Additionally, data gained through drug checking has been used to support vital drug alert information.
This is what happens when people with lived and living experience are genuinely included in policy development. We get practical, evidence-based solutions that actually meet the needs of our community.
Medicinal cannabis driving defence
The government is investigating a medical defence for people using prescribed cannabis who are driving. This is long overdue, but we'll need to watch carefully to ensure the expert working group includes people who understand the issue, including medicinal cannabis patients and prescribers.
Investment in services
The government points to almost a quarter of a billion dollars in investment in AOD services, 5-year grant agreements for NGOs, and naloxone availability in licensed venues. These are positive, but many of these commitments were in discussion or announced before the Summit.
Room for improvement
While we welcome the progress, there are some critical areas where the government hasn't yet moved forward. After months of meaningful consultation with experts, people with lived and living experience, families who've lost loved ones, and organisations that work day-in and day-out with our community, we know what's needed. Some key recommendations weren't supported in this response, but that doesn't mean the conversation is over. These are areas where we'll continue to advocate and work with government to build understanding and support for change.
Drug detection dogs and strip searches
The single recommendation that the government outright rejected was number 12.10, which called for ceasing the use of drug detection dogs and strip searching for suspected drug possession at music festivals. This is despite clear evidence that these practices don't prevent drug use, actively harm young people, and undermine the very drug checking services the government are currently trialling.
Let's be clear about what the data shows. A detailed report from Redfern Legal Centre found that in the 10 years examined, NSW Police strip searched 82,471 people. Of these, only 1,182 were convicted of supply — a mere 1.43%. That's a lot of trauma inflicted for very little supply reduction. The report described strip searching as "inherently humiliating and degrading, regardless of whether protocols are correctly observed." As one woman told news.com.au after being strip searched at the 2023 Knockout Festival, "No one really wants to be felt up by a police officer."
And what about drug dogs? Analysis of the data found that of 6,700 searches triggered by a positive indication from a drug dog, only 40% resulted in the discovery of illicit substances. Drug dogs are triggering thousands of invasive searches based on unreliable detection, and the majority of people searched have done nothing wrong.
The NSW Police Force's own budget tells a story too. The budget for "supply reduction" is 40 times higher than harm reduction, but it's spent traumatising thousands of people while having almost no effect on drug supply. Meanwhile, the harm reduction sector has a proven track record of improving thousands of lives and saving people from overdose deaths.
Premier Chris Minns gave the often-asserted justification that police and drug dogs at festivals are a deterrent to dangerous drug consumption. But where's the evidence? The government has chosen to ignore its own Drug Summit recommendation and continue harmful practices that undermine the drug checking services they're supposedly supporting.
No new supervised injecting centres
The government hasn't committed to expanding safe consumption sites beyond the existing one in Kings Cross, listing their position as ‘Noted’.
The RACGP’s addiction medicine spokesperson, Dr Marguerite Tracy says “We’re making progress, but there’s still a long way to go. We still only have one medically supervised injecting facility in Sydney, and we need more of these services statewide. It’s also vital to expand the reach of needle and syringe programs, particularly in rural, regional, and remote parts of the state where these services can be few and far between.”
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann shared a similar sentiment. "The 1999 drug summit made the bold and courageous recommendation for a medically supervised injecting centre, and since then the Kings Cross clinic has saved thousands of lives. The Minns Government's refusal to support new sites is a slap in the face to the health experts and frontline workers who have made the Kings Cross Medically Supervised Injecting Centre a world-leading example of best practice in harm reduction."
Needle and syringe programs in prisons
Still nothing on providing sterile injecting equipment in correctional settings. Hepatitis C transmission in prison is a major barrier to achieving the NSW Health goal of elimination by 2028. This isn't radical – it's evidence-based harm reduction that works.
Decriminalisation
There was no movement toward decriminalising personal possession and use of illicit drugs, something NUAA called for in our position paper. The criminal justice response to drug use continues to perpetuate stigma, discrimination, and systemic inequality.
What the community is saying
The response from organisations working in this space has ranged from cautiously optimistic to deeply disappointed.
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, spokesperson for drug law reform, didn't mince words.
"The Drug Summit was meant to be a turning point for evidence-based drug reform in New South Wales. Instead, we've seen Labor squander this historic opportunity to reform our drug laws because of the Premier's lack of ambition."
"Instead, the government has cherry-picked the easy bits and rejected or delayed the reforms that would actually make a difference. Most of the recommendations that have been supported were uncontroversial and the government didn't need a drug summit to arrive at them."
Emma Maiden from Uniting NSW.ACT, which runs the Kings Cross Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, said "The whole community will be shocked and disappointed at the lack of vision and boldness in the government's response to the Drug Summit. We saw the Bob Carr Labor Government meet the moment of the original Drug Summit in 1999. The lack of leadership to meet the moment of the latest Drug Summit by the current government is profoundly disappointing."
She's right. The 1999 Drug Summit led to groundbreaking reforms including the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre and a genuine commitment to harm reduction. Twenty-five years later, we had an opportunity for similar transformative change, but the government chose a more cautious path.
Faehrmann was particularly critical of the government's refusal to end drug detection dogs and strip searches.
"The government's refusal to support a key recommendation to end the use of drug detection dogs and strip searches for suspected personal drug possession at music festivals is particularly arrogant considering the ongoing class action against NSW Police. All the experts agree that these practices traumatise young people, destroy trust in police and drive riskier drug use."
Fair Treatment have described the response as "out of touch with community attitudes" and a win for "bad politics over good policy” and have criticised it for the "hurtful exclusion" of First Nations people and regional communities, groups disproportionately impacted by current drug laws.
The Disconnect
The Drug Summit was a remarkable process that brought together people from across the sector – not just us, but health experts, police, families, researchers, and service providers. There was genuine consensus on many issues, which shows how much common ground exists when people come together. The government has acted on many of these recommendations, which is encouraging. However, some of the recommendations where there was strong agreement from experts and the community weren't supported in this response. We understand that government needs to balance many considerations, but we believe the evidence for these reforms is compelling, and we're committed to continuing the conversation.
Minister for Police Yasmin Catley's comment that "drugs remain illegal and cause widespread harm" shows the continued disconnect. Yes, drugs can cause harm, but so do the laws and policing practices around them. Criminalisation, over-policing, strip searches, and stigma cause enormous harm to our community, and these harms are preventable.
What Now?
The government has committed to releasing the state-wide Alcohol and Other Drug Strategy within six months and will work with stakeholders on implementation. This is an important opportunity to shape what comes next.
NUAA, along with ACON and the Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies (NADA), have called for a dedicated Taskforce to oversee implementation of the Drug Summit recommendations. We're encouraged that the government are open to collaboration, and we believe this Taskforce will be strengthened by including representatives of people with lived and living experience, health professionals, and affected communities. When we work together, bringing different perspectives and expertise to the table, we get better outcomes.
We're also looking forward to seeing regular public reporting on progress against all 56 recommendations. Transparency helps everyone – government, services, and community – stay focused on the goals we're working toward together. This is our chance to turn good intentions into real change that improves people's lives.
The Bottom Line
As NUAA said in our position paper to the Summit: "We acknowledge the overwhelming frustration of community members who have tirelessly and at a personal cost contributed to each of the previous Inquiries. Often, people with lived or living experience and their loved ones are called upon to publicly talk about the single most painful experiences of their lives. We must respect their input and courage with an equal commitment to enacting real change."
The government's response shows real respect for much of that input, and we welcome the progress that's been made. At the same time, we know there's more work to do. The Drug Summit Report found that an estimated 101,773 people in NSW need treatment but aren't getting it. Services need better resourcing and coordination to address the complexity of presentations involving mental health, housing, and other needs. People are still dying from preventable overdoses, still facing criminalisation for what is fundamentally a health issue, and stigma still prevents too many from accessing the care they need.
This response is a foundation to build on. The commitments the government has made – the 10-year Strategy, the reforms to diversion, the drug checking trial, the investment in services – these are real steps forward that will help people. Now we need to work together to go further. NUAA remains committed to partnering with government, health services, and our community to achieve the bold, evidence-based reform that will truly make a difference.