HOWARD REJECTS CLAIM WAR ON DRUGS BEING LOST

The Prime Minister has rejected any suggestion Australia's law enforcement
authorities are losing the war against drugs.

John Howard says that claim is not borne out by the evidence and says
federal and state police forces deserve praise for increasing drug seizures.

The National Crime Authority (NCA) has called for new options to tackle
Australia's drug problem to be considered and ideas which have previously
be thought unpalatable to be reconsidered.

But Mr Howard rejected the NCA's backing for a heroin trial and told
Brisbane Radio 4BC that he gave no aid and comfort to those who claimed the
war against drugs was being lost.

"It seems to me to represent a total surrender and I think sending entirely
the wrong signal to say 'well, let's legalise it'," he said.

"What you need to fight the drug problem, you need tough law enforcement,
you need education so people don't start taking drugs in the first place
and you need rehabilitation facilities to help the people who want to break
the addiction."

The Opposition leader, Kim Beazley, has accused Mr Howard of burying his
head in the sand.

"This is not a report from some bunch of pinko liberals out on the
streets," he said.

"This is a report from the National Crime Authority which is the over
arching crime fighting body in organised crime in this country."

Concerned

Meanwhile, a former head of the NCA, Peter Faris, QC, has suggested the
organisation be wound up if it has given up the fight against drugs.

"I'm absolutely staggered, I'm amazed and I'm deeply concerned," he said.

"I mean if the National Crime Authority has really given up, lost its
willpower with relation to heroin, well then I think their drug
investigation powers should be taken away from them."

Peter Cleland, a former head of the joint parliamentary committee which
oversees the authority, has rejected Mr Faris' criticism.

"It [the NCA] came out of the Costigan Royal Commission and it was formed
in 1984," he said.

"Now it has royal commission powers. That's something you can't give to a
police force.

"Now he conveniently forgets the very improtant role that the NCA plays
using those powers, which gathers intelligence and passes it on to both
state and the Australian Federal Police forces."

NCA support

The NSW and South Australian directors of public prosecutions (DPP) have
agreed with the NCA's recommendation that doctors be allowed to prescribe
heroin to addicts from a government-controlled repository.

The South Australian DPP, Paul Rofe, has previously outlined a plan for
addicts to be registered and then supplied and injected with heroin at
state-run clinics, and says the NCA's recommendations should be given a chance.

"I mean I don't want...[anything] more than a drug-free society, but how we
get there is another question," he said.

"At the moment, unfortunately, I think organised crime is winning and if we
can take away their supply domination, perhaps by medically prescribed
supply, that may help, who knows?

"But I think we need to find out."

The Alcohol and Drug Foundation has supported the NCA's call.

Bob Aldred from the foundation says more research needs to be done and a
heroin trial could be part of that.

"We can't keep talking about things for over 20 years, debating on things
which are purely on opinion and personal value systems without having the
facts before us," he said.

"For that reason, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation is very supportive of a
trial."