Nearly 1000 doctors, nurses, addiction specialists and allied health professionals are pressuring the Senate crossbench to reject the Turnbull government's plan to drug-test welfare recipients.
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The medical professionals - who have more than 20,000 years combined practical experience - have signed an open letter saying there is no evidence to suggest the policy will work and will not help people with drug addictions.
"Not only will this trial fail to reduce drugs, it will increase crime and drive social division. If Parliament wants to reduce the social harms of drug and alcohol addiction, it should spend the money on proven, frontline treatment services that work," Dr Marianne Jauncey???, a public health physician and a member of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs, said.
"We're calling on Parliament to listen to the expert advice of addiction medicine specialists, drug and alcohol nurses, social workers, clinical psychologists, public health academics and trauma counsellors. We are drawing on our experience when we say that this trial is ineffective, counterproductive and ignores evidence."
The letter, organised by activist lobby group GetUp???, follows criticism of the trial from the head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Michael Gannon, and comes as a parliamentary inquiry looking at the trial prepares to hold its first public hearing in Sydney on Wednesday.
As many as 1750 young people and job seekers in western Sydney, 2500 in Logan, Queensland, and 750 in Mandurah, Western Australia, will be drug tested and face strict welfare quarantining measures as early as next year should the Senate approve the government's contentious welfare crackdown.
Under the two-year trial - a policy which was first unveiled in the May budget - 5000 new recipients of Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance will be tested for illicit substances such as ice, ecstasy and marijuana across three locations.
The trial is accompanied by strict income management measures. People who test positive to two drug tests will have 80 per cent of their welfare payment redirected to a cashless welfare card, which quarantines the money for use on essential goods and services such as groceries.
Dr Gannon said last week the policy was "mean and non-evidence based", and would not help people with drug addiction problems.
"We don't expect people in most industries to have drug testing before they turn up to work. It's simply unfair and it already picks on an impaired and marginalised group. It's not evidence-based. It's not fair. And we stand against it," Dr Gannon told the National Press Club in Canberra last week.
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge criticised the AMA at the weekend.
"My main response to those medical professionals and to the Labor Party who are criticising this, is that this is a trial in the very sense of the word, where we want to try something new, evaluate it, and if it works then we might roll it out further. If it does not work then we adjust. That is how you do a trial. By the way, all medical advances are done on this basis, of trial and error. And if it is good for health policy, why isn't it good for social policy to do it this way?" Mr Tudge told Sky News on Sunday.
"I cannot understand where the medical profession is coming from, given the evidence which is available, given that it is a trial, and I would like them to be a bit more open-minded given that the objective is to help people get off drugs in the first place."
