 So, here we are. Welcome to Melbourne. I feel very emotional after that incredible welcome to country. I'm also very jet lagged. My name is Naomi Berkshaw and I'm the Executive Director of Harm Reduction International. And after a four-year wait to be together again, I am absolutely thrilled to welcome you all here to the 27th International Conference. Further to Uncle Bill, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. The Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elders past and present and note that sovereignty has never been ceded. We recognise that this land sings for 60,000 years of living culture and acknowledge that modern history is scarred by massacres, a violent dispossession of land and the trauma of the stolen generation. When we stop to acknowledge the violence of colonialism in Australia and name systemic racism as the source of the violence experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we take a small step towards creating a more equitable world. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land. So, we are extremely grateful to those of you who have travelled from almost 80 countries around the world to lend your passion, your activism and your expertise to the conference this week and together we look forward to continuing the legacy of this conference as a space to catalyse change, to share knowledge and to work together to fight for the health, dignity and rights of people impacted by drug laws. I would like to welcome to the conference representatives from local and international networks of people who use drugs. The former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy Helen Clarke, the former President of South Africa Keglema Modlanti and her Excellency Mrs. Gugu Modlanti, the Australian Capital Territory Minister for Health Rachel Stephen Smith, the New South Wales Minister for Mental Health Youth Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson and our Lord Mayor Sally Cap. On behalf of the conference directors and the team at Harm Reduction International I would like to extend an enormous thank you to our four conference partners, Harm Reduction Victoria, Aval, that's the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League, Asham and the International Network on Health and Hepatitis and Substance Users, that's INSHU. It is your hard work that has made it reality that we can all be here today. Before we go any further, I want to reflect on events since our last conference. The last three years have been incredibly difficult and COVID has caused immense loss and suffering to people all over the world. And I know that for many in the harm reduction community, the challenges faced and the trauma experience has been acute. To remember the people we've lost, we've created a quiet space for reflection in the exhibition hall an indoor garden of remembrance. In this space, you're welcome to share stories, photos, texts or mementos because we cannot and we will not forget the people that we have lost. And for now I'd like everybody to stand please and join me in celebrating, celebrating the lives of the people who cannot be here today. So in the past weeks I've been mulling over how to kick off HR23. I don't want to share new evidence or research up here, there will be plenty of that over the next couple of days including for amazing colleagues at HRI. Instead I want to focus on why we come together and I keep coming back to two things. One, the divisiveness of the lies that people are told about drugs and two, our conference theme, strength and solidarity. We travel to be together because with our shared commitment to evidence and upholding human dignity, we can create a more just future. And we can support one another, recognizing that many, many people here work in difficult and extremely hostile environments. A big part of what we're dealing with in our movement is stigma on top of the disinformation and misunderstanding about drugs. Factors which are very effective in upholding structures that actively oppress people. Stigma and lies are the basis of the most public policy on drugs. There's no evidence that policies focused on punishment and zero tolerance achieve their goal of reducing drug use. There is however plenty of evidence demonstrating that punitive drug policies are causing harm. Overdose deaths in a toxic drug supply, mass incarceration, compulsory treatment, HIV and viral hepatitis, these are just some of the consequences of these policies. Because there's so much scare mongering on drugs, many people have bought into the un-nuanced idea that all drug use is bad, rather than drug policy is bad. And this can divide and separate us from many of our natural allies working on issues at the intersection of drugs, whether it's poverty and housing, criminal systems, indigenous rights, or universal healthcare. This is despite the fact we share a vision for a world where dignity, health and rights are upheld. Which brings me to my second point, strength and solidarity. In the same way that disinformation about drugs divides us, the far-reaching negative impact of drug policies means that drugs as an issue should unite us. We can't fight racism, achieve gender or queer justice, or ensure that everybody is housed without reforming drug laws. Because drug laws are tools within these systems of oppression. Therefore, not only do we in the harm reduction and drug policy community need to stick together, we need to bring people in from other movements to show how our goals are mutually reinforcing, to stand with each other. One area in particular that cuts across movements and highlights how drugs as an issue should unite us, is our shared opposition to the vast amounts of money spent on punitive law enforcement and which almost always ends up targeting poor or minority communities. When it comes to drugs policing, harm reduction international has been at the forefront of challenging the outrageous $100 billion spent annually on drug control and calling for a redirection of some of those funds to services that will promote some of the health and rights of people who use drugs. But looking more critically at our work, we realize we've been too polite. It's not about redirecting a small amount. It's about stopping funding streams for punitive and racist systems which sabotage healthy societies. So much like we must be bold in forging alliances across movements, we must be bold in our demand for investing funds in health, justice and community. Because we've had to endure too much violence and harm from drug policies and too many lies about drug use for too long. And so in the spirit of solidarity, I encourage everybody here to seize this totally unique and precious time together this week to share, exchange experiences and knowledge.