Bob Carr will reunite with other key players behind a landmark drug summit to urge current leaders to display the same courage for reform shown 24 years ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The landmark five-day summit in 1999 changed perceptions of illicit drug use and established the political backing for the creation of Kings Cross' life saving, medically supervised injecting centre.
Premier Chris Minns has promised a second summit next year but advocates are concerned it won't move the dial much further than prior major inquiries into ice and festival drug use.
Mr Carr will on Wednesday meet with former political friends and foes Carmel Tebbutt, Clover Moore and John Brogden as well as the first medical director of the injecting centre, Dr Ingrid van Beek.
"At the beginning of the Drug Summit, the catch cry was courage," Mr Carr said in a statement.
"I still believe that courage is vital in this difficult area of drug policy."
Uniting, which operates the injecting centre, wants the Minns drug summit to also run for five days.
"We really want people to go on the same journey (as in 1999)," Uniting NSW.ACT executive director Emma Maiden told AAP.
"It is time for NSW to really look again at the issues and not take anything off the table and for people to bring an open mind."
The law-and-order approach to illicit drug use was a key factor in intergenerational disadvantage and was leaving a financial and emotional toll on the state and its next generations, she said.
One in eight people use illicit drugs each year and most don't go and develop drug dependency, she said.
"But for the 10 or 20 per cent who do, it's an average of 18 years before they seek treatment," Ms Maiden told AAP.
"As a society, we shame them, we don't treat it like other addictions and we see it as a failure of character.
"We don't recognise there are a whole lot of complexities that come into why someone becomes addicted."
As well as decriminalisation, the summit is expected to consider whether NSW should follow ACT and Queensland's lead on fixed and mobile pill-testing sites.
Experts say the sites allow for safer drug use and the start of harm reduction conversations but the government stresses it would not be a "silver bullet".
The government has already opened the door for more drug users caught by police to be managed in health programs.
The measure, taking effect in early 2024, expands the caution scheme used for personal use of cannabis to MDMA, cocaine and ice.
The Legalise Cannabis Party will try to go a step further on Wednesday, introducing a bill to legalise the personal consumption of cannabis.
"This will create a drastic reduction in the costs of law enforcement, it will attack the profits or organised crime and it will put cannabis where it belongs - in the domain of health," party MP Jeremy Buckingham said.
Australian Associated Press
