THE MEDICAL PROBLEM

Public debate about the scourge of illegal drugs reached a critical point
this week with the suggestion by the chairman of the National Crime
Authority, Mr Gary Crooke, QC, that heroin trials should not be ruled out.
He is by no means the first to make such a suggestion, and he was quickly
supported by others who have proposed such trials in the past. Equally
promptly, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, rejected the idea, in a carefully
phrased political message. "While ever this Government is in office and
while ever I am Prime Minister of this country," he said, "there will be no
heroin trial."

However cleverly he might have distinguished his position from the
tentative support by Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, for heroin trials, Mr
Howard, by declaiming thus in Parliament, never looked more like a man on
the way to losing an argument.

It is no longer enough to suggest that to support heroin trials is to give
up the fight against crime.

Such simple opposition to a heroin trial - an experiment with the
controlled, supervised supply of heroin to addicts for the purposes of
treatment - increasingly looks irrational.

Mr Crooke's argument for heroin trials proceeds from the conviction that
the problem to be dealt with is primarily medical, not criminal.

The public, increasingly, seems to agree.

Admonitions such as that by the Treasurer, Mr Costello - that as head of a
crime authority Mr Crooke should stick to catching criminals, not try to
make policy - look facile.

Mr Howard seized on recent success against drug importers as proof that the
present system is working.

It is true that there is an unusual scarcity of heroin on Sydney's streets
at present, probably a combination of the effects of a drought in Burma,
big increases in drug seizures and the jailing of some leading importers.

But there is little confidence that the recent success in limiting the
supply is anything but temporary.

The NCA report on organised crime given by Mr Crooke this week reveals how
seriously illicit drugs - the trafficking, money laundering and numerous
other criminal ramifications - affect the national economy.

The report says drug trafficking should be accorded the priority and
attention of threats to national security.

Illicit drug use costs the Australian community $1.7 billion annually.

Australians, the report says, are consuming 6.7 tonnes of heroin, twice the
amount of 17 years ago. It is too easy for Mr Howard and other politicians
to suggest the police should stick to their job and keep up the good work
of catching drug traffickers and stopping supply.

Of course, policing efforts against illegal drugs should continue as
vigorously as ever. The question though is whether, by looking primarily at
the criminal problem, there is a failure to confront addiction - which
underlies the criminal industry - as effectively as it might be.

The Federal Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, says that he used to think
heroin trials might be desirable, but has changed his mind since a wider
range of alternative treatments for heroin addiction have become available.
His argument might be more persuasive if there could be greater confidence
these new treatments were effective and reaching all addicts.

Administering heroin will not cure heroin addiction.

But it is becoming harder than ever to see why heroin can continue to be
ruled out as one of the drugs used by doctors, first to reach, then to
treat, the most serious cases of addiction.

Megawati's team

So far, so good. In choosing her Cabinet, President Megawati Sukarnoputri
has assembled a mostly well balanced and qualified team. Unfortunately, the
problems facing Indonesia are so huge and complex that there can be no
certainty that the new regime will succeed.

It has to deal not only with an economy in crisis and separatist and
communal violence stretching across the archipelago, but also the
challenges of working within an untidy, still evolving democratic system.

The politicians who brought down the wily but wilful Mr Abdurrahman Wahid
have demonstrated their power to frustrate a president.

Members of the military and political elite that thrived during the
Soeharto years still exert a baleful influence from the wings.

That said, the naming of a Cabinet that has been well received in Indonesia
and internationally is auspicious news for Australia's Prime Minister, Mr
Howard, as he prepares to fly to Jakarta tomorrow for a two-day visit.

The famously enigmatic Ms Megawati has yet to provide more than brief,
generalised indications of her policy priorities. But her choice of senior
ministers, and the fact that Mr Howard will be the first foreign leader to
meet her since she became President, suggest that the thaw in
Australian-Indonesian relations that began with Mr Wahid's visit to
Canberra last month is set to continue, and even accelerate, under his
successor. That could not have been predicted with confidence a few short
weeks ago.

Inevitably, there are some reservations about the Megawati team. One is
that the critically important post of attorney-general has not yet been
filled. Until it is, analysts will withhold judgment on whether the new
President is serious about the pursuit of those, particularly in the
military, accused of corruption and human rights abuses in East Timor and
elsewhere. The inclusion in the ministerial list of retired
lieutenant-general A.M. Hendropriyono - a former special forces officer
implicated in a 1989 massacre - as head of intelligence co-ordination was
discouraging. But otherwise Ms Megawati has generally chosen people with
merit and credentials rather than political placement, particularly in key
portfolios. The economic team - headed by the former ambassador to the
United States, Mr Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, and banking expert Mr Boediono
- - has been welcomed by the international financial community.

Ms Megawati may know little about economics, but she should be well advised.

Also reassuring was the reappointment of a capable moderate, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, a former lieutenant-general, as chief security minister.

An experienced and respected career diplomat, Mr Hassan Wirajuda, is the
new Foreign Minister. Overall it's an imposing line-up. The question is
whether the politicians will let them get on with the job.