Page 74 - WHACK35

O N E H A N D S H O U LD WA S H TH E OTH E R – A N D B OTH WA S H TH E FAC E

S TI G MA , H E P C & D RUG L AW RE FO RM

by The Golden Phaeton

If you don’t know, a skein is like a ball of wool. So, business as usual in the drug law sector, but not in
another area with which it is intimately bound. In the
Think of the many and various responsibilities of our health domain, brave new blood borne virus policies aim
government as a vast intertwining skein to eliminate hep C from Australia by 2030. Unsafe inject-
reflecting the structure of our society at large. This ing drug use is the primary vector of hep C and as a result
skein is divided into departments, portfolios, the disease is saturated with negative public stigma. This
ministries, what have you, each with a particular stigma is a major hurdle in bringing people to treatment,
remit: health, finance, sport, arts etc. Though each therefore the Victorian government has also taken aim at
has a specific area of governance, the responsibilities it, angling (incredibly) at its elimination by 2030.
of one can never be fully separated from those of the
others, or of the whole. I remain sceptical as to whether these targets are feasible

yet I stand, in hope, to be corrected. The new treatments
Pull one thread and somewhere else another will be which have fuelled such aspirations are nigh on
tugged. Sometimes predictably, sometimes not. Part of miraculous, and our monolithic medical system is already
good management is making certain that decisions in being mobilised towards these ends as is evidenced by the
one zone are compatible, at best synergistic, with those recent establishment of the Elimination Council (EC). But
in others. Our governments do a reasonably good job if we are to reduce stigma, then stigma should really be a
of keeping things more or less clanking along. But the central consideration in the formation of drug law. Why?
skein is a juggernaut; a huge, non-linear monster – so, Because drug law itself is a major driver of stigma. Hep C
confusions, mix-ups, and outright contradictions stigma radiates from societal perspectives on drug use, and
inevitably occur. Governments are aware of this, these perspectives are given credence by the illegality of
surely, perhaps not in precisely the way I’m framing it, recreational drug use.
but nonetheless aware.
H E P C I N AU S TR A LI A I S TH E C H I LD
The looming Victorian parlia- O F U N SA FE I NJ E C TI N G D R U G U S E Attitudes to illegal drugs, drug
mentary inquiry into drug law (95% O F N E W N OT I F I C AT I O N S A R E D U E dependence and hep C are
has particular terms of refer- TO S H A R E D I N J E C T I N G E Q U I P M E N T ) formed from
ence, but I would like to suggest society’s conversations with
an overlay. There needs to be – TH I S I S TH E R E A S O N FO R TH E itself on large and small
an over-arching consideration S TI G M A S U R RO U N D I N G H E P C – scales, born sometimes out
to help the policy instrument of gut reaction, sometimes
avoid working at cross-purposes Y E T I N A S P E E C H A B O U T TH I S out of reason -yet nothing
with other parts of the skein sculpts our attitudes to
– specifically, the effort to S TI G M A , P EO P LE W H O I NJEC T a thing quite like its
eliminate Hep C in Australia. I DRU G S W E R E NOT ME NTI O NE D. legal standing. Legality and
am not sure why the inquiry has legal status is, in a way, our
been called at this time. It seems relatively quiet in the government’s way of pointing to whether a thing should
sector. Of course it’s never really quiet in the land of be stigmatised or not. Consider the heavy stigma
drugs, there are always huge concerns, that’s par for associated with having spent time in jail. Or, more
the course, but there is none of the public hysteria pertinently, think of the reduction in stigma helped along
which often drives such inquiries. None of that dog- by relaxation of laws surrounding the LGBTIQ communi-
whistling to societal fear of The Other. Hopefully this ties.
is a good sign. Perhaps some sensible evidence-driven
work will get done, safe from the slave master of the The climate is probably not right at this time to address
election cycle – as long as nasty personal agendas do vast issues like Portugal-style legalisation or even
not come into play. decriminalisation, however effective that would be. But
if reducing stigma is fed into the very bloodstream of law

74 W H A C K P. I E D I T I O N : S P R I N G 2 0 16

WHACK35_LYOT.indd 74 11-Oct-16 4:25:45 PM