Election 2005: NAP response to Chief Minister's Youth Round Table

NAP: For Human Rights

The Network Against Prohibition is a human rights group fighting for the re-legalisation of all drugs which will result in a dramatic fall in the number of people languishing in our prisons for non-violent drug offences. All five NAP candidates are illicit drug users who want to redistribute wealth, beginning at the Territory level. As such, they are vehemently opposed to government for the wealthy.

The Network Against Prohibition NT (NAPNT) was formed on the 7th of March 2002 as a response to the Northern Territory Labor Government's drug house legislation and as a response to the human rights abuses faced by drug users in the Northern Territory and around the globe.

NAP is part of a global network of drug user groups and represents drug users who feel strongly that the war on drugs must end as soon as possible.

NAP takes a non-judgmental approach to drug use and recognises the fundamental role that drug use has played historically in society.

NAP believes that people who use illicit drugs have the right to be treated with dignity and respect and be able to live their lives free from discrimination, stigma and health and human rights violations.

What we stand for!

In a nutshell, NAP is a human rights campaigning body, working to end the war on drugs. NAP views the war on drugs as a major human rights catastrophe with a serious impact on drug users and the populations of developing countries around the world.

NAP opposes the US led push for zero tolerance policing and their attempts to eradicate the use of currently illicit substances from our society. These policies are seriously impacting on the health and wellbeing of many members of our own community.

Prohibition of illicit drugs does not work and has never worked. NAP calls for the NT and Australian Government's to develop reality based drug policies. As a first step, the misuse of drugs act must be repealed as should other draconian drug related legislation! Incarceration of drug users should cease immediately and there should
be an amnesty for all prisoners doing time for drug or drug related offences.

What we do!

NAP aims to:

* Use non-violent direct action to bring an end to the war on drugs.

* Increase community awareness of the impact of prohibition on the
health of drug users.

* Involve drug users, their families and other community members
in the ongoing work of NAP.

NAP members believe that the two-party system is not a true democracy and we do not believe that change can be made through the ballot box.

The NAP position is that the whole system needs to be changed from the bottom up to ensure that it is the people that have the greatest say in Australian Government policy, not the multi-national corporations that are currently dictating policy to successive Federal, State and Territory Governments.

As such, NAP is not running candidates in the election because we think we can make change using the Parliament. We are running in the election as a way of raising the profile of the network and to get some momentum in our campaign for drug law-reform in the Territory and beyond. The NAP campaign will continue well after this election (and the next one) as we are well aware that we have a lot of work to do in countering the anti-drug propaganda and hysteria that is being pushed by our 'leaders'.

Our platform for the NT election is as follows:

The NAP is calling for:

• The repeal of drug prohibition; essentially the re-legalisation of drugs;

• The release of all non-violent drug offenders from the Northern Territory Correctional System;

• A Royal Commission into police, judicial and governmental corruption in the Northern Territory;

• An end to zero tolerance policing of young people;

• An immediate pardon for all members of the Network Against Prohibition and for associates of NAP who have been found guilty of charges relating to NAP activities; and

• All current charges faced by NAP members to be withdrawn immediately by the NT Police and the Department of Public Prosecutions.

NAP members have major problems with the concept of 'youth". This is a relatively new concept and the age that someone is determined to be a "youth" seems to be getting older. Categorising people as "youth" sets young people apart from everyone else as if they are second-class citizens. This means that their voice in the community, especially when it comes to decision making is diminished.

"Young" people are ignored by our "leaders" and as a group of people in our society are not adequately catered for in terms of their educational, recreational and health needs.

The Chief Minister's Roundtable has asked us to comment on the following policy areas:

- Education and Employment

NAP would argue that our entire education system needs to be overhauled. Schooling should be about expanding the minds of our young people rather than just act as a holding pen, which seems to be the case at the moment.

We are extremely concerned about the lack of funding for the public education system and we believe that the education system needs to be radically diversified to fit the needs of different students. We are not all the same and we don't learn the same way, so the education system needs to be flexible enough to cater for the needs of all
students.

The focus should be on smaller, community-based educational facilities and all young people should have the option of home-schooling.

Rather than focus on knee-jerk reactions to truancy such as sending text messages to parents, we should be looking at the reasons why so many young people choose not to attend school and address those.

The lack of secondary schooling facilities in remote indigenous communities is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

We believe that the Youth Allowance is discriminatory and that young people should have the same access to Social Security benefits as adults.

- Health and Wellbeing

We believe that poverty is a major issue for young people and families in the Territory and none of the major political parties are facing up to this fact. Far too many young people are forced to survive on a week-to-week basis. Many young people are unable to maintain an adequate diet and this has a major impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of young people.

Tactics like zero-tolerance policing serve only to further alienate some of the most alienated young people in our community. Coupled with drug prohibition, which forces many young illicit drug users to live in fear, this has a major impact on young people's general sense of well-being.

Too much Government funding goes to incarcerating young people when it should be used to provide more opportunities for young people and to reduce the sense of isolation that many young people face.

When it comes to sex, NAP do not support an arbitrary age of consent. Young people start having sex at different ages and their sexuality should not be criminalised. People are able to give consent at different ages and this must be recognised by the law.

The puritans already have too much power in our society.

As well as being a human rights organisation, NAP members provide a range of services that young people can access.

Health information for drug users

If you have a health related query, don't hesitate to send us an email or give the NAP office a call on 0415 16 2525 and ask for a member of our peer education team.

One service we provide is the "Underground" Needle and Syringe Distribution Service. We acknowledge that the majority of injecting drug users do not wish to access government funded needle/syringe programs and that many people are wary of buying fits in chemists.

Although this is not a 24 hour per day, 7 day per week service, it is pretty easy to get hold of someone from the NAP peer education team and to access injecting equipment. We can also point you in the direction of the closest needle and syringe program to you, or you can check it out for yourself here.

To access the NAP underground exchange call 0438 745 259 or 0415 16 2525.

We provide a number of other services from the NAP office including:

-Provision of pamphlets, posters, and other information and resources,
-Provision of condoms,
-An extensive library with fiction and non-fiction books as well as a
library of health journals etc,
-Internet access, and
-Support and referral to appropriate agencies.

Please note that we are not a crisis service. If you are in crisis you might want to try one of the following services:

These services are all 24 hours, seven days per week.

CrisisLine (Northern Territory wide)
1800 019 116

Kids Chat Line (Northern Territory wide)
1800 332 333

Kids Help Line (Australia wide)
1800 55 1800

Alcohol and Drug Information Service (Northern Territory wide)
1800 131 350

We can refer you to crisis accommodation, domestic violence and drug treatment programs if you require. Please call us on 0415 16 2525 to arrange an appointment.

- Safe and Secure Communities

Despite what you read in the NT News, young people are more likely to be victims of crime than anyone else. Successive governments on a federal and state/territory level ignore this fact and continue to use young people as the scapegoats for all of the crime in our community.

Drug prohibition causes major problems for young people who choose to use illicit drugs. They are unable to measure the purity of the drugs that they are using, and the prohibition pushes up the prices of drugs to astronomical levels, forcing people to engage in sex work and even property crime to maintain their drug use.

NAP is also concerned about the possibility of serious and ongoing corruption within the ranks of the NT Police. We know from Royal Commissions in other jurisdictions that drug prohibition is responsible for corrupting police officers and this is probably the case in the Northern Territory as well.

We have called for a moratorium on building jails in the Northern Territory. We do not support incarceration and believe that young people should be jailed as a last resort, and only in extreme cases.

We have called on all candidates in the NT election to commit to the immediate release of all non-violent drug offenders from Territory prisons.

- Participating in Decisions That Affect Our Lives

NAP does not believe in the electoral system as a way of making change. We encourage young people to engage with grassroots organisations and to start their own groups to effect change in our society. As previously stated, we believe that the whole system needs to change before we have any real democracy in this country.

While we do not support the electoral system, and we definitely do not support compulsory voting, we believe that the age that people are allowed to vote should be lowered to 13 as a first step.

If you want to make change, get out in the streets and do it!

- Opportunities to Have Fun and Develop New Skills

We believe that "young people" are treated as second-class citizens and arbitrary laws setting out when and who they can have sex with, watch certain movies, or use certain substances hinder their ability to fully develop as human beings.

Government funds that are currently being wasted on jails and other punitive measures should be placed in a fund that is accessible to groups of young people who want to run their own recreational and social events.

Young people should not be discriminated against because they use illicit drugs.

If anyone wants to get involved with NAP or you just want some more information about drug law-reform, or if you are an illicit drug user who wants some information about safer drug use, please email us (hq (at) napnt.org) or contact us on our mobile 0415 16 2525.

We meet fortnightly at the Groove Café in Nightcliff and anyone with an interest in human rights or drug law-reform is welcome to attend.

Alternatively, you can get more information including heaps of youth specific links at our website: http://www.napnt.org