You’re reading This Week Online, VICE Australia’s runsheet of shit you probably missed, or should have seen, this week. Subscribe here to get it straight in your inbox, every week.
“Ari” here, welcoming you back to This Week Online.
Videos by VICE
I Was a Teen Ecstasy Dealer in the 90s
This Used To Be a City in Ukraine
Elon Musk Mocks Twitter Employee With Disability That He Laid Off
Olympic Pool-Sized Asteroid Has ‘Very Small Chance of Impacting Earth’, NASA Say
WHAT HAPPENED
03/03 – 10/03
- It’s LEGAL for Chemist Warehouse to sell poppers. But that doesn’t mean they will.
- Is Queensland chill now?
- Happy International Women’s Day week! Gender equality is 300 years away.
- NSW’s abysmally underpaid nurses and midwives told to stop using OnlyFans
- God-awful photos of truly blessed outfits at Charli XCX’s Melbourne show
- Everything you need to know TODAY in AU
- +++++++++
IT’S LEGAL FOR CHEMIST WAREHOUSE TO SELL POPPERS. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THEY WILL.
Yes. It’s actually legal in Australia for pharmacies to sell amyl. Despite its limited impact on the human body and traditional use by the LGBTQ+ community as a muscle relaxant for anal sex, the inhalant’s recreational use on dancefloors has shrouded the product in an illicit vibe that is distinctly Australian-authorities-core.
Anything that is fun for partygoers and the gays alike is to be feared and distrusted in this country, which could explain why, in 2018, the Australian Government tried to ban poppers.
The TGA wanted to have the product reclassified from a Schedule 4 Prescription Only Medicine to a Schedule 9 Prohibited Substance – which, legally, would’ve equated it to meth or heroin.
But, as Aleks Bliszczyk writes for VICE AU, thanks to the advocacy from the LGBTQ+ and medical communities, amyl nitrite was downgraded to Schedule 3, Pharmacist Only Medicine, which can be legally sold and purchased behind the counter at pharmacies.
So what’s the score? When will we see it on Chemist Warehouse’s claustrophobic shelves? Why is one still forced to pop into Club X to acquire the goodgood? Hmmm?
[ here ]
IS QUEENSLAND CHILL NOW?
In staggering news, recent reforms in Queensland have seen the state, famously one of Australia’s most conservative with its harsh drug laws and historically heavy-handed policing of such, ostensibly become a national leader in harm-reduction.
Fascinating. Last month, the QLD government and police proposed to extend the Police Drug Diversion Program – where first offenders caught with minimal amounts of drugs aren’t prosecuted, instead referred to professional help – to all drugs, not just weed, as it was originally implemented.
THEN, QLD became the first state to legalise pill testing.
Back in September 2022, the QLD government also launched its new Achieving Balance Plan to reduce alcohol and drug-related harm by trialling various intervention strategies.
Soooo sorry to rupture the incorrigible smugness of the other states, but my hands are tied… QLD is BASED. The lot of you could learn a thing or two.
[ here ]
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY WEEK! GENDER EQUALITY IS 300 YEARS AWAY.
While girlboss capitalism geared up to choke the western world in shades of purple, honouring women everywhere on Wednesday, the phrase “celebrating female empowerment” echoing around press releases and meeting rooms and email chains………….. The UN put gender equality at 300 years away. That’s at the rate we’re going, but in fact, it is getting more distant.
“Women’s rights are being abused, threatened, and violated around the world,” secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday in a General Assembly speech.
“Progress won over decades is vanishing before our eyes.”
Across the world, in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Iran, and others, global progress on women’s rights is “vanishing before our eyes”, Guterres said.
To that end, Greg Jericho for the Guardian reminded us that the gender pay gap is not only very real, but ends up with women earning $1 million less than men. Ouh la la. Of course, there is still plenty to celebrate – especially the ability of women to live, survive and maybe even thrive under a patriarchy which seeks only to diminish and control them.
[ here ]
NSW’S ABYSMALLY UNDERPAID NURSES TOLD TO STOP USING ONLYFANS
In a weird, moralistic and, frankly, whorephobic email sent out to NSW’s nurses and midwives last week, the industry’s complaints body warned its members that using OnlyFans, especially to, god forbid, supplement a horrifically low wage, could get them into trouble.
The Nursing and Midwifery Association of NSW (NSWNMA) also included in the email some scare scenarios for nurses and midwives to discuss with their colleagues, including one where a male senior manager recognises a junior from OnlyFans and blackmails her for “special treatment” on OnlyFans, in exchange for “preferential rostering” at the hospital. In another, a worker is imagined to be recognised by a patient from their OnlyFans, before another worker snitches on the OnlyFans nurse, believing her conduct to be “below the expected standards of a registered nurse and that her behaviour has brought her profession into disrepute”.
These scenarios present a disingenuous, strange, and stigmatising reality where sexual harassment in the workplace is inevitable for people who do sex work and posting on OnlyFans brings the nursing and midwifery profession into disrepute.
Do we think it’s genuine concern? Or simply whorephobic dogwhistles?
[ here ]
GOD-AWFUL PHOTOS OF TRULY BLESSED OUTFITS AT CHARLI XCX’S MELBOURNE SHOW
Charli XCX’s fans are the best dressed in the land. It almost rhymes because it is 100% true. This is because they are primarily queer, young and into hyperpop [equating to hot]. And Melbourne people have the best style in the world. So, Charli XCX’s Melbourne fans are unfathomably, inconceivably, unutterably, well dressed. And a good outfit is still a good outfit when the photo is shit. SO I brought my piece of shit camera to Charli’s Melbourne show, and snapped some incredibly shit pics of incredibly good outfits.
[ here ]
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY IN AU
Oh you want news? You want it delivered straight to your telephone? Your mini screen? Your personal telly? Do we have the TikTok channel for you!
Welcome to VICE AU TODAY… everything enlightening you need to know about the news today in Australia. Let’s be for real, for just one second… you’re not watching the 5, 6, 7, 8, NOR 9 o’clock news. Free to air is DEAD. TikTok is TV! Time to succumb….
[ here ]
+++++++++++++++
You’ve been reading This Week Online, VICE Australia’s runsheet of shit you probably missed, or should have seen, this week. Subscribe here to get it straight in your inbox, every week.
Follow Arielle on Instagram and Twitter.
Read more from VICE Australia….
