I am so honoured to see that many of you responded to my last update and contacted the office of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. If you’ve had a response, please let me know in the comments below. If you're yet to send a message, read on for how you can still help.
I also wanted to share with you some comments made by former Australian Federal Police commissioner, Mick Palmer, who is now a vocal advocate of drug law reform. Mick Palmer gave evidence at a NSW inquest last week, in which he criticised NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's stance on harm reduction.
“Mr Palmer said politicians needed to move away from the "tough-on-drugs rhetoric", quoting an unnamed "ex-head of a state jurisdiction" he had recently met who told him such an agenda "was one of the biggest mistakes I've made, but it was the only political answer I could give".
“He said one politician had told him: "We all know what to do ... it’s just difficult to get re-elected if we do it." (Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 5 2018)
I’m sick of seeing politicians caring more about their chances of being re-elected than caring about young people’s lives.
The NSW inquest isn’t over. While this issue is still in front of the NSW government, I would like to meet with Gladys Berejiklian. I just want to share my story with her, and hopefully help her see that people calling for pill testing aren’t “giving the green light to drugs.”
We are parents, concerned family members, and we’re realistic about the ways young people use recreational drugs.
Can you help me? Can you send a message to the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and ask if she will meet with me? I would like her to hear my story, and to help her to understand that we don’t need harsher penalties for drug dealers. We need pill testing.
Send a message to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
You can use this template:
Subject: Please meet with Adriana Buccianti
Message:
The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian,
I am one of the nearly 60,000 people to sign Adriana Buccianti change.org petition calling for pill testing and drug testing services.
I respectfully request that you meet with her and hear her story. She lost her son Daniel at a music festival, and she believes drug checking and pill testing is the best way to prevent this tragedy from happening to any more families.
You yourself have said “I value human life. I do not want to see any life taken away." Please meet with Adriana, to hear how you can ensure that no more lives are taken away.
change.org/pilltesting
Thank you.