NUAA Statement on the NSW Government’s Response to the 2024 Drug Summit
NUAA Chief Executive Dr. Mary Harrod speaking at our Peers and Consumers Forum 2025
To the NUAA Community,
After months of waiting, the NSW Government finally released its response to the Drug Summit on 28 October 2025, nearly a year after the Summit took place in December 2024.
We had hoped to end 2025 on a positive note, but we are left feeling somewhat disheartened and conflicted. While there are elements of validation in the government’s response, it also highlights how much work remains to be done.
In summary, the government has chosen to implement the Summit’s recommendations as follows:
36 supported
15 supported in principle
2 noted
2 for further consideration
1 not supported
It’s an ongoing disappointment that the NSW Government took meaningful law reform off the table before the Summit started. It subverted the main goal of the Summit, to understand and reflect community sentiment. There is clearly ongoing, long-term advocacy work to do on law reform.
NUAA has been positioning itself to gain a wider constituency of support for reform dating from founding the DanceWize NSW program in 2017 and we will continue this work. DanceWize NSW has helped create a generation of young activists who are and will continue to take leadership positions within the sector and we absolutely believe they will create meaningful change in NSW.
In terms of the Government’s recent response, we are particularly disappointed that it has not supported recommendations to end the use of drug detection dogs and strip searches for suspected drug possession, even during the current trial of drug-checking services at music festivals.
Strip searching is a violation of bodily autonomy and civil rights, and NSW Police are clearly disregarding a strong call from the community to end this practice. We support the courageous lawyers and young people who have participated in class action lawsuits and believe that they will eventually be successful.
Additionally, NUAA sees the NSW Government’s non-response on removing the legislative barrier to more safe injecting sites as a missed opportunity to support local community action in establishing a facility where there is a perceived need.
With this barrier removed, local communities could seek to provide a safe consumption space in an existing local primary service for example. NUAA knows of many regional and other communities where public injecting is a community issue. These communities should be empowered and supported to find local solutions. We hope with further research and community advocacy this barrier will eventually be removed.
Despite these setbacks we are pleased that government’s response presents opportunities to expand harm reduction services in NSW and provide further support to peer workers in the alcohol and other drugs sector.
NUAA is a community-led organisation with lived or living experience embedded at every level. We centre the voices of people who use drugs in policy development, research, and advocacy for system-wide change. We are peers with living and lived experience of drug use. Our work and our very existence challenges stigma and discrimination, and we will continue to play this vital role despite the government's response.
We have been doing this work long before the 2024 Drug Summit, and we remain committed to it now, even as we process the government’s response.
We recognise that many people in our community may feel frustrated or disappointed. NUAA is committed to connecting with you, our members and allies to build bridges and strengthen our collective advocacy and solidarity. Together, we will continue to push for evidence-based reform and meaningful change.
Some of NUAA’s key advocacy areas include:
Uplifting and highlighting harm reduction initiatives and services
Centring lived and living experience and community voices within the alcohol and other drugs sector
Reducing stigma and discrimination for people with lived and living experience of drug use
Advocating for changes to protect the rights of people within our community.
NUAA hopes that this reaffirms to you and the government why our work is so essential.
NUAA will continue to advocate for the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of people who use drugs across NSW.
In solidarity,
Dr Mary Harrod (NUAA Chief Executive) and the NUAA team