CRIME AUTHORITY BACKS HEROIN TRIAL

Australia's top level crime fighting body, the National Crime
Authority (NCA), has lent its support to a heroin trial with addicts
being supplied out of a government repository.

The NCA said options previously deemed unpalatable needed to be
considered to help tackle the rising problem of drugs and organised
crime.

In a commentary on organised crime, the NCA said the reach of
organised crime in Australia was pervasive, multi-faceted and with
enormous social and economic costs.

It said drugs remained the most lucrative commodity for organised
crime and drug abuse cost the community an estimated $1.7 billion a
year.

The NCA backed unrelenting war on drug traffickers but said other
measures also should be considered.

"Suffice to say that experience should encourage us not to rule out
consideration of options previously deemed unpalatable," it said.

"We must respond to the ongoing progression of this problem.

"Among the many measures worthy of consideration is to control the
market for addicts by treating the supply of addictive drugs to them
as a medical and treatment matter subject to supervision of a
treating doctor and supplied from a repository that is government
controlled."

The NCA report comes on the same day that the Senate is to debate
legislation substantially increasing NCA powers to compel reluctant
witnesses to answer questions.

But the NCA believes that even stronger measures may be needed to
combat organised criminals who have proved adept at using new
technology and foreign jurisdictions to exploit new criminal
opportunities such as money laundering and people smuggling.

It said organised crime was a significant threat that was growing in
complexity and reach and a holistic approach needed to be taken.

"Shortly yet emphatically stated, it should mirror the approach that
government currently employs against established threats to national
security," it said.

In a forward to the report, NCA chairman John Broome said Justice
Athol Moffit, whose royal commission into licensed clubs contributed
to the formation of the NCA in 1984, published a book in 1985 titled
A Quarter to Midnight.

He said that alerted the community to the problem of organised crime.

"Today there are no less greedy or unscrupulous people in our
community," he said.

"However, the opportunities available to them to profit from criminal
activity have increased enormously.

"A Quarter to Midnight on Justice Moffit's clock in 1985 has now
become 23.55 on our computer or other digital screen."