The Yellow Gate

30/08/2022

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-31/limited-opioid-withdrawal-help-in-regional-rural-australia/101382608?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web

Leah McLeod's doctor told her if she did not go on methadone, she would likely lose her baby. But many Australians struggle to access the same life-changing therapy.

22/07/2022

Exciting. And long overdue

The first fixed-site drug-testing pilot in Australia has just been launched. 🥳 The six-month pilot in A.C.T. will enable people to test drugs and pills free of charge, and provide advice on general, sexual and mental health via drop-in consultations with nurses. ⛑🔎💊💬

📅 The site will be open from July 21 on Thursdays from 10am to 1pm and Fridays from 6pm to 9pm.

🌏🥾 We know lots of people living in NSW will be keen to cross the border to use the service – luckily, you do not need to be an ACT resident or give any details, such as a Medicare card. 🤫😎🥸

🤔 💌 We’re still trying to find out if you can mail in a substance for testing — it seems like the answer is "No" for now.

🗣 We are interviewing Chris Gough, CEO of Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy (CAHMA) for Users News about setting up the site and we will bring more stories after the site is up and running. Watch this space. http://www.usersnews.com.au/

✊🏽 Let's hope this pilot puts some pressure on NSW Government to actually implement the recommendations of its own "Ice inquiry". 🤞

👀 Link to article: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7825141/canberra-launches-first-drug-testing-site/?cs=14264

07/05/2022

DRUG ALERT- FAKE XANAX

Round, white and unmarked white tablets have been sold across Victoria, sometimes as 'Mylan' or 'Xanax'. These tablets do not contain alprazolam-the active ingredient in Xanax or Kalma. Instead, there is a mixture of five relatively new benzos or novel benzodiazepines.
NOVEL BENZOS DETECTED: Bromazolam, Clonazolam, Etizolam, Flualprazolam and Flubromazepam

Risk of any drug is dose-dependent. A single dose of one kind of substance in this case, benzodiazepines, can be significantly stronger or milder than another.
Benzos are a Central Nervous System (CNS) depressant, which can cause anxiety suppression, sedation, amnesia and disinhibition. Higher doses can lead to drowsiness, reduced consciousness, difficulty breathing and death.
RISKS WITH NOVEL BENZOS:
• Longer duration of effects
• Stronger effects in smaller doses (than pharmaceutical benzos)

REDUCING RISKS:
• Be wary of fake pharmaceuticals in circulation
• Avoid using with alcohol, opioids or other depressants (overdose risk)
• When using any drug, always make sure you are in a safe environment with people you trust
• Start low, go slow
• If you experience adverse effects, seek help immediately CALL 000

See:https://www.health.vic.gov.au/drug-alerts/high-potency-benzodiazepine-tablets for more info.

26/09/2021

Why you shouldn’t let your kids have just a sip…….

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-09-26/alcohol-use-problem-drinking-coping-with-anxiety/100445092?fbclid=IwAR0HBDeO5MEfIN25r-qNnSn3rfVUuwIZR2TEKUn95QpEAKXlBAEDMZp_orI

It is a cause of angst for many parents — the worry that their children will face pressure to try alcohol and illicit drugs. But parents can make more of a difference than they think.

15/06/2021

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-15/new-heroin-treatment-helping-patients-in-melbourne/100197558

34-year-old Summer was deep in the throes of addiction. Now she's clean and thriving, thanks to an injection medicine.

07/06/2021

Do you know all the risks of these medications?

12/05/2021

I rarely think about my sobriety in terms of years. For me, celebrating 25 years of sobriety is about reflecting back on “trying to do the next right thing” for the past 9,125 days or, more honestly, for the past 219,000 hours. It also means staying humble and grateful that, with the help of countless people, I’ve been able to get back up the same number of times I’ve fallen down. And I fall a lot.

The biggest learnings from the past 25 years are twofold:

1. Own the stories and the hard sh*t, or the stories you’re trying to outrun and the pain you’re denying will own you. The truth will set you free. It will kick your ass first, but then it will set you free.

2. We don’t have to do the hard stuff alone. We weren’t meant to. We heal in connection. This is why it pisses me off when people shove my work into the self-help category.

The gifts that have accompanied my daily and sometimes hourly decision to feel instead of numb have been too many to name, but the one that I rarely talk about is how my sobriety has affected my level of self-trust.

I write a lot about trust as a marble jar. We build trust like we collect marbles – one small gesture at a time. It’s not a big, sweeping act or a single gesture in a stressful moment. Trust is a collection of small moments.

We talk about trust between people and groups, but we often forget about self-trust. Self-trust is normally the first casualty of failure or mistakes. We stop trusting ourselves when we hurt, get hurt, feel shame, or question our worth.

Here’s how we use the BRAVING tool to think about self-trust:

B - Did I respect my own boundaries? Was I clear about what’s okay and what’s not okay?
R - Was I reliable? Did I do what I said I was going to do?
A - Did I hold myself accountable?
V - Did I respect the vault and share appropriately?
I - Did I act from my integrity?
N- Did I ask for what I needed? Was I nonjudgmental about needing help?
G - Was I generous toward myself?

Today, I’m putting 25 marbles in my self-trust jar. One for every year of my messy, hard af, wonderful, wholehearted, imperfect, sober life.

xo,
BB

22/04/2021

08/12/2020

Some new guidelines on reducing your risk from alcohol.

https://adf.org.au/reducing-risk/alcohol/alcohol-guidelines/?fbclid=IwAR0oKY7nsEf6YZqCLVI09chUW3skNOM_-ZY0O76xQgGceXtU4qKnIlaV4f4

Based on the latest scientific evidence, new alcohol guidelines have been released to help reduce the risk of alcohol harm and improve the health of Australians. The guidelines were developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the leading expert body in health and medical r...

03/12/2020

Thank you to the very brave people in this series for sharing their stories. There is no doubt that your courage will inspire others.

03/12/2020

A shuffle in the right direction. The process of change is slow. But change is change and our collective fingers are crossed.....

State government considers plan for tiered system where people possessing small quantities of drugs would initially be let off with a warning