HEROIN'S TOLL: THREE DEAD FROM ONE FAMILY

Heroin has caused three deaths in Don Allan's family and his niece was also
an addict.

Now, she is missing.

Despite the personal hardships caused by the needle, Mr Allan opposes a
heroin trial or supervised injecting room in the ACT.

Michael Gardiner says his "beautiful" son Patrick struggled with an alcohol
addiction at 13 and died after a heroin overdose in 1999 he was 28.

Mr Gardiner supports a heroin trial, saying it would keep kids alive until
they decided to deal with their addiction.

Mr Allan and Mr Gardiner are united in their pain and opposition to the
proposed drug referendum, but divided on how to deal with the illicit drug
problem in Canberra.

If the drug referendum goes ahead, ACT voters will be asked if they support
an injecting room and/or heroin trial.

Mr Allan said, "Although illicit drugs have caused three deaths in my
family and I have a niece who is an addict, I oppose a heroin trial and a
safe injecting room because current arguments have not persuaded me of
their benefits.

"As for the ACT Government's proposed referendum on drug policy, this is
simply an exercise in populist politics that allows politicians to avoid
making difficult decisions so that if things turn sour they can turn the
blame back on voters."

Mr Gardiner said it was "shameful" to hold a referendum on a health problem.

"How can a so-called civilised society not help people in pain?" Mr
Gardiner said.

"If they don't say yes [in the referendum] we don't solve the problem."

Family and Friends for Drug Law Reform has more than 200 members, many who
like Mr Gardiner have buried their loved ones after a heroin overdose.

President Brian McConnell said the organisation supported a heroin trial
but believed the referendum was "ill-conceived, without merit and should
not be supported by the Assembly".

"The referendum is not about effectively dealing with the drug problem nor
benefiting the community," Mr McConnell said.

"By discarding the evidence-based, best-practice approach of the ACT Drug
Strategy in favour of a populist vote, ACT Liberals may gain an electoral
advantage.

"But if self-interest prevails and allows this charade to take place, the
integrity of the Assembly will be brought into question."

Few issues prove as divisive as drug reform, pitting families against
families, police against police, welfare workers against welfare workers.

National Crime Authority chairman Gary Crooke argued a medically supervised
heroin trial would help break the cycle of drug trafficking and money
laundering.

"Everything should be considered, nothing should be rejected. We've got a
terrible problem here on our hands and the essence of that approach is to
attack the profit motive," Mr Crooke said.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty had taken a hard line,
saying he would "never" support a heroin trial.

"When you start to do heroin trials, do you then do trials of cocaine, ice
and ecstasy?" Commissioner Keelty said.

"All that would happen is that importers would come up with a sexier type
of heroin that will try and lure the market in another direction."

Salvation Army ACT public relations secretary Major Kevin Hentzschel said
the referendum wasted taxpayers' money, which could be spent on drug use
prevention and education programs.

"The saying goes you put the railing at the top of the cliff rather than an
ambulance at the bottom," he said.

"The only way to go is to have a society divorced of drugs."

Major Hentzschel said the Salvation Army would help people with addictions
including illicit drugs, alcohol and gambling but believed "shooting
galleries" and heroin trials would increase the drug problem.

The Canberra Injectors' Network, which offered support for up to 80 drugs
users daily, also opposed the referendum on what they saw as a health issue.

"A vote against that [heroin trials and injecting rooms] will depend on how
the question is posed," former manager Tarquin McPartlan said.

"I'm afraid, people will use the referendum to express their views about
heroin."

Ms McPartlan said the network would back an injecting room.

It would offer heroin users a safe and supervised facility to take their
drugs, eliminating the need to have a quick fix in Civic's toilets and
parks, which increased the likelihood of overdoses and contracting diseases.

The network would conditionally support a heroin trial, depending on how it
was run.

But acting manager Peter Parkes and Ms McPartlan said current drug policy
was ineffective.

"The situation we have now is causing problems on such a large scale that
we need to at least be willing to look at ways we can do things
differently," she said.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Kerryn Phelps said families
wanted solutions to the drug problem, not political dogfights over ideology.

"A prescribed heroin trial offers the possibility of solutions why not give
it a go?" Dr Phelps said.

"We can't afford a scaredy-cat approach to illicit drugs from our community
and political leaders. The time has come for practical decisions about
approaches that just might work.

"As medical practitioners, we know that heroin is almost identical to legal
prescribed drugs like morphine and methadone. The treatment of heroin as an
illicit drug makes the world of difference."