A free screening of a new documentary Half a Million Steps at the Star Court Theatre tomorrow shows how people living in regional centres are missing out on drug and alcohol treatment services.

Northern Rivers-based rehabilitation centre The Buttery’s chief executive Leone Crayden said the documentary tells the stories of people living in rural towns and how far they need to travel to find treatment. 

“A person living in Dubbo would need to take about 500,000 steps to walk to the treatment they need in Sydney,” Ms Craydon said. 

The documentary tells the story of how in October 2018, 100 people walked the 500,000 steps from Dubbo to deliver a message to NSW Parliament in Sydney.

The walk was part of The Uniting Church’s Fair Treatment campaign, and the documentary tells the personal stories behind a movement to reform drug laws and policy and make treatment available to all.

“It’s only a few steps to get drugs in Dubbo, but it’s hard to get drug treatment,” the trailer for the movie states.

Ms Crayden said there’s a raft of collateral damage of using drugs and alcohol.

 “Many people using drugs and alcohol don’t even have the funds to get transport to Sydney for treatment,” she said.

“It’s time regional centres had rehabilitation and treatment in their towns.”

Mr Crayden said the government spends $3.8 billion on jail and prisons, but only $1.2 billion on drug and alcohol rehab services.

“That’s less than 1% of total health care spending,” she said.

“Drug policy modelling says we should increase it to $1.9 billion

“At the moment, there are 40,000 people incarcerated in Australia and we are spending $560 million on building Grafton Correctional Centre.

“80% of convictions are for possession of drugs - not distribution. 

“There’s a real lack of matching funds and we know restoration works more than incarceration.

“Of 12,000 strip searches done last year, only 59 were prosecutions. 

“The government is spending money on policing doing unnecessary searches.

“They would be better to spend money more widely on treatment facilities. 

“It costs about $224 per day per bed for rehabilitation – that’s where people get the help they need, not as criminals.

“Once people have been through rehabilitation, there are so many benefits for society and families. 

“People go on to secondary education and get jobs.  

“It’s an economic boost for society – that’s the ripple effect of treatment.”

The documentary Half a Million Steps will be screening for free, this Friday, November 1 at the Star Court Theatre in Lismore.

A panel discussion will be held immediately after the screening and will be facilitated by Leone Crayden and panellists include The Buttery’s Krystian Gruft, lawyer and drug law reform advocate, Eddy Lloyd, Brendan – a person with lived experience.

The Buttery is based near Bangalow and has both residential and community outreach programs from Tweed Heads to Port Macquarie