Matt Noffs

Matt Noffs is the co-founder of the Street Universities and CEO of the Noffs Foundation, Australia’s largest drug and alcohol treatment service provider for young people under 25. The Noffs Foundation works with young people for up to 5 years after leaving treatment. Young people’s drug use dropped by over 50% – that’s for all drugs – after finishing residential treatment, while criminal activity also dropped by a half. Where 1 in 2 young people were experiencing suicidal ideation on entering the program, only 1 in 10 still felt suicidal on leaving. The Street Universities focus on issues related to drugs, mental health, employment, education and crime, and over 10,000 young people frequent one of their 7 locations across Australia each year. In 2011, the Federal Government wrote to the Noffs Foundation stating that the Liverpool Street University had significantly contributed to crime reduction in the Liverpool/Fairfield areas. Matt is the author of the bestselling ‘Breaking The Ice’. His latest book ‘Addicted?’, which he co-authored with Kieran Palmer is published by HarperCollins and is in store now. Matt, both in his role at Noffs Foundation and HRA was recently one of the driving forces behind Australia’s first pill-testing trial. Matt can be found at: twitter.com/mattnoffs noffs.org.au/blog

Nick and Ash discuss the week in news.INTERVIEWMatt Noffs, CEO of the Noffs Foundation joins the program to talk about the roots of prohibition and his two recent books on its effects, Addicted and Breaking The Ice.

We speak with Matt Noffs, the co-founder of the Street Universities and CEO of Noffs Foundation, Australia’s largest drug and alcohol treatment service provider for young people under 25. Noffs Foundation works with young people for up to 5 years after leaving residential treatment. The Street Universities work with over 10,000 young people every year, focusing on issues related to drugs, mental health, employment, education and crime. Matt is currently balancing work with a Master’s in Criminal Justice at UNSW and the sleeplessness that comes with growing small children. He was trained in freestyle rap by the young people he works with but feels he is a poor student and that his rapping is sub par.

CATCH UP on Luke's chat with Matt Noffs chief executive of the Noffs Foundation. They discussed a possible "corrupted supply" of heroin causing an alarming spike in overdoses throughout Sydney in the past month.