WHACK Magazine is HRVic’s flagship publication.
A magazine written and designed
BY people who use drugs
FOR people who use drugs.
WHACK is an integral part of HRVic's community engagement and our mission to advance the health and human rights of people who use drugs.
By providing our community with a free platform to be able to express our thoughts and feelings
and that delivers factual information about issues that directly relate to our lives including relevant information
about substances, and reducing the harms associated with drug use – in particular reducing the risk of HIV, hep C and hep B.
Due to the diverse & marginalised nature of our community, we do our best to present the info in such a way as to have wide appeal & lasting impact & to represent the different perspectives of a wide range of contributors –
from peers to researchers to carers and allies to workers and back to peers..
The information takes on an array of forms- from the informative to the ridiculous – and everything else in between.
We are constantly on the search for new ways to share our harm reduction messaging and to extend the reach of that message- all while staying true to our roots.
Want to submit a story or article or send in artwork?
If you'd like to submit a story, news article, information or education please send us an email at whack@hrvic.org.au.
WHACK has become known for it's artwork and images and is an ideal platform for visual creatives to have their work seen. If you are an artist or photographer and you'd like to submit your work for publication, please send a high resolution copy or scan to whack@hrvic.org.au.
All published submissions are paid for. Cha Ching!
If you would like to advertise to the 7k eyes who glimpse WHACK on the regular, email samj@hrvic.org.au for rates.
WHACK is going GREEN.
Currently we print 3.5k paper copies of WHACK magazine every 4 (or so) months.
That equals 14,000 magazines of (average) 40+ pages each = 560,000 A4 paper pages- PER YEAR.
Times that number by 50 magazines (roughly) and that comes to approx. 28 million pieces of A4 paper which is around 140 trees per magazine!!
That is a whole lot of trees.
You can imagine that after 50 magazines over 30 years .......
This bothers us. A lot.
We know that our community do their part and pass on the mag when they have read it,
or will read it while at the services they attend and then will leave it for the next readers.
It all helps.
We thought we would make it easier for our members to read WHACK online so we have changed up the online format of WHACK from a flip book pdf to a web page.
Having WHACK as a webpage means that we can make stories and articles more interactive and make them so they can connect directly to the sources or to the links and feeds of the authors or artists or to other similar stories and articles in other publications.
Check out WHACK issue #45 which was our first 1/2 1/2 online/paper issue.
And keep an eye out for WHACK #46 the AUTUMN issue out early May 2022.
Please let us know what you think!
WHACK Back Issues
We are 50 magazines deep!
The library of magazines you see before you represents the vast body of work that HRVic’s dedicated workers & volunteers have created over the last three decades. Back issues of the magazine are provided in digital form for ease of access & in order to spread the harm reduction message as widely as possible.
To view, just click on the cover of the issue you wish to see & it will open as a pdf. .
We have attempted– through much trial and error – to keep the size of each issue as small as possible, while keeping the resolution sharp.
We are still in the process of linking each magazine for your convenience.
Please bear with us while we get them all loaded for you.
