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Melbourne 2004

Melbourne 2004 - Thailand

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Overview

Programme & Abstracts

Links

Overview

The ‘15th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm’ took place at the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre (MECC) in Australia. The diverse event was attended by over 1,100 delegates representing more than 40 countries over five days – from the 20th to 24th April 2004. The delegates came from a range of professional backgrounds such as service providers, development and aid organisations, and research institutes, and there was a strong input from government or represented policy bodies and law enforcement agencies.

The conference, organised for IHRA by the Australian Drug Foundation and the Centre for Harm Reduction, included an opening address by Dr Achman Sujudi (Minister for Health in the Government of the Republic of Indonesia) and the ‘Rolleston Oration’ keynote address from Dr Neil Blewett (President of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council for Australia, and the former Federal Government Health Minister) – who, from his perspective as a politician, activist, scientist and policy analyst, overviewed the history of drug policy in Australia and lay the conceptual groundwork for papers that followed throughout the conference.

The broad programme included presentations on the need for harm reduction strategies throughout South East Asia, anti-retroviral treatment for AIDS, healthier environments for injecting drug users, epidemiological analyses, programme evaluations, and economic analyses, harm reduction theory and policy, human rights, the tensions between law enforcement and harm reduction, how much more work we have to do.

Programme & Abstracts

Click here to view the pocket-size programme overview [PDF:230KB]

The conference booklet itself was a 256-page document, which has been split into separate PDF files below:

Introductory Section (pages 1 to 16) [PDF:376KB]

Programme Overview (pages 17 to 39) [PDF:256KB]

Poster Presentations (pages 40 to 48) [PDF:67KB]

Conference Abstracts Part 1 (pages 49 to 150) [PDF:637KB]

Conference Abstracts Part 2 (pages 151 to 256) [PDF:630KB]

Presentations

Saturday 24th April 2004
Ethnic Minorities

Jane Fountain [PDF:47KB]

Rapporteur Report

The appointed Conference Rapporteur for this event was Alison Ritter, from the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Australia.

Click here to view the Rapporteur Report [PDF:61KB]

IHRA Awards

The International Rolleston Award

This was awarded to Anya Sarang in recognition of her hard work and achievements in developing and promoting harm reduction in Eastern Europe. Anya is the Co-ordinator of the Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network and a founding member of the Russian Harm Reduction Network, and has previously worked at Medecins Sans Frontieres, AIDS Foundation East-West, and the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour (London). In her plenary presentation at the conference, Anya described the revolutionary shifts in her region - including the introduction of harm reduction as a drug policy initiative.

Click to view history of the International Rolleston Award

The National Rolleston Award

This was presented to Tony Trimingham, who established the Damien Trimingham Foundation after the death of his son from a drug overdose. Tony has worked as a counsellor for over twenty years and has assisted many families who are affected by illicit drug use. The Foundation runs a help-line, operates the Family Drug Support website, organises support meetings and produces educational materials for families.

Click to view history of the National Rolleston Award

Film Festival

The inaugural ‘Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival’ was launched at the Melbourne conference in 2004, and showcased over 50 works from ten countries. The event was an overwhelming success with capacity crowds and standing room only in all the sessions. As the Rapporteur report notes, “the film medium brought a new and rich perspective to our understandings of drug use and harm reduction”.

Click here to view the Film Festival abstracts

Click here to view details of the film directors

Click here to view the 2004 Film Festival Evaluation

The 2004 Film Festival Award was won by Theresa Wynnyk and Sherry McKibben from Canada for their film entitled “Hi Dad”. For more general information about the Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festivals, please visit www.chr.asn.au/resources/filmfest.