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Keywords: Drug Addiction

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Only in America

    • Peter Craven
    • 25 July 2024

    It’s easy, isn’t it – much too easy – to invoke the standard response that only in the so-called Land of the Free could these things transpire. A vulgar, mendacious man who has refused to believe that he lost the last election is now the improbable victim of an assassination attempt. And the incumbent president, who has not done badly at his impossible job, surrenders his chance at re-election.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bruise-free ministry

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 01 July 2024

    Last month, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference released a pastoral statement on religion and sport. And while commending sport’s ability to promote growth in individuals and foster healthy communities, if sport is to be a field of mission, it should be more willing to dive into those places where the 'bruises' occur.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What's the harm in a bit of porn?

    • Bill Farrelly, David Halliday
    • 30 May 2024

    We don’t need more statistics to prove that addiction to alcohol, gambling and illegal drugs plays a huge role in domestic violence. But what about addiction to pornography? Until now, public conversation on this has been minimal. Despite a wealth of research linking pornography consumption with sexual violence, why are we so afraid to discuss this elephant?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Another Melbourne

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 27 October 2023

    Set in a Melbourne bursting with bohemian allure, Chris Womersley's The Diplomat is a book of despair and the agony of regret. Intertwining the worlds of art, drug addiction and deception, the author confronts us with the question: how well can we truly know another? 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Why Singapore needs to shift the conversation around drugs

    • Kirsten Han
    • 29 March 2023
    1 Comment

    Singapore's notoriously strict drug laws mean that people caught with over a certain amount of drugs face the death penalty. While the Singaporean government claims its policy deters drug trafficking, critics say there is no evidence that the death penalty is effective, arguing that these policies do not address the root causes of drug use and addiction.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Material girls in an addiction fuelled world

    • Isabella Fels
    • 12 December 2017
    6 Comments

    My astute mother was the first to suspect Maggie of taking and selling my clothes to fund her addiction. After that, my friendship with Maggie fell apart. I began to hate her and wanted nothing to do with her. This year, that all suddenly changed.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Race, addiction and sexuality by moonlight

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 01 February 2017
    2 Comments

    The chaos embedded in these characters' world is made clear through physical symbols - Chiron flees from bullies into an abandoned drug den, where he finds a used syringe and holds it up to the light like a talisman - and by the camera, which trails and circles the characters, or locks onto their faces, a conduit for their grief or desperation or lust or rage or joy. Bursts of actual violence or dramatic confrontation are rare. Where they occur it is their emotional content that is most confronting.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Addiction is about social exclusion not moral failing

    • Paul Jensen
    • 21 July 2015
    11 Comments

    Greens leader Richard di Natale is currently visiting Portugal for a first hand look at how they have successfully bypassed the criminal justice system in treating drug addiction. There’s increasing acceptance of the view that addiction is caused by a lack of social connection and bonding. For Portugal, the most crucial step was to provide addicts with secure housing and subsidised jobs so they had a purpose in life and a sense of responsibility.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Fighter who found community on the streets

    • Steve Sinn
    • 10 December 2014
    26 Comments

    Sue will always be for me flesh and blood, her trust I will forever cherish. Hers was a wretched life from the beginning to the end. But for some reason I feel impelled to lift her name out of the anonymity narrative that includes the vast numbers of people who have gone before us. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Film compounds real life drugs tragedy

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 17 July 2014
    1 Comment

    Ben and Tas Pappas, from Melbourne’s working-class north, take the skating world by storm in the 1990s. This film doesn’t skimp on the drugs-and-sex-addled reality in which they found themselves, fuelled by massive sponsorship dollars and the anarchic skating culture. But this is not the film's greatest tragedy. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ratings hog Seven kills Cousins doco

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 26 August 2010
    7 Comments

    Ben Cousins is no angel, but neither is he a demon; just a man with a problem that he's fought to contain. His story has mirrors in the lives of many people who have battled addiction. Seven's treatment of it borders on exploitative.  

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2009: Empathy for paedophiles is not sympathy for the devil

    • Michael Mullins
    • 04 January 2010
    4 Comments

    A bill passed hastily by the NSW Parliament last week, specifically to force released paedophile Dennis Ferguson out of his home, effectively enshrined hate in legislation. Like drug addiction, paedophilia is a problem that requires community empathy, rather than ostracism. September 2009

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