Sharp blade of drug addiction drawn at summit

Lying on the ground with a furious axe-wielding man standing over him, Kurt Simpson's life of escalating drug use and crime was about to come to a close. He had started drinking alcohol aged 15 and cycled through ecstasy, speed and finally ice, doing what he could to feed his habit. When the mother of his kids said "it's us or the drugs", so strong was his addiction, he did not hesitate and chose the latter. The drive to change his "crap life" finally consumed him when it was almost too late on the street outside his kids' home. "He was saying something to me I couldn't understand," Mr Simpson said. "I was just registering in my head 'that's it, there's no more, this is the end'. "And as I looked over to the right, my five-year-old son seen the whole lot." Finally, the now 43-year-old health worker resolved to begin a long journey to treat his drug use and its causes, he told attendees of the NSW Drug Summit. The four-day summit, which closes in Sydney on Thursday, aims to find broad consensus to chart a new course for drug policy for the state home to almost one in three Australians. The summit was earlier told one in four people seeking treatment for alcohol and other drug use were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Indigenous people are also extremely over-represented in the prison system. Mr Simpson, whose story involves several stints in custody before getting clean 17 years ago, says he was fortunate to find a service that helped him connect to Country and finally make him feel whole. The Gamilaraay man oversees a team of seven in a drug health service in southwest Sydney. He proudly describes himself as a "knowledge holder" of drug addiction. "Everything that I learned needs to be in one spot, they need to learn about culture, who they are, and identity," he said. "A lot of our people have trauma and can't move past it." It's a suggestion echoed by other culturally and linguistically diverse groups at the summit. A cross-section of MPs, justice officials and bureaucrats have heard about long waiting lists for drug treatment centres, racial differences on drug diversion and the lingering stigma of drug use that forms a barrier to people seeking help. Government appetite to trial pill testing appears to be rising. But Health Minister Ryan Park and Premier Chris Minns have tempered hopes of decriminalisation for certain drugs, saying they lack a mandate from the community. Mr Park baulked at suggestions of committing to a public vote at the next election. "That does not mean that we can't progress significant reform, and I don't want people to think this has been a drug summit that's only focused on decriminalisation," Mr Park said. 13YARN 13 92 76 Lifeline 13 11 14