Scoping Report: Proposed Drug Consumption Rooms in Southwestern Sydney

This report outlines key findings from an examination of media articles, policy documents and reports, and academic literature. The aim of the research leading to this report was to produce preliminary findings concerning the issue of a recently proposed drug consumption room in southwestern Sydney, with attention paid to related topics such as stigma, discrimination, and violence against people who use drugs. This was done through a reading of relevant, recent Australian newspaper articles (including local newspapers in Sydney), sourced through the Factiva database, sampled from the past 12 months (to October 2016), to establish how the issue of a proposed drug consumption room was being discussed in public news media. This also helped to establish some of the key social actors (councils, interest groups, politicians) concerning the consumption room. The information about these social actors was used to search for relevant policy documents that could provide an indication of the discourses or political interests through which key actors were operating. Finally, the above research was supplemented with a literature search and overview of scholarly research literature that may be on interest regarding the above topics, and used as a basis for future research in this area.