DRUGS: LINK TO CRIME PLEA

Declining crime rates in the ACT could not be sustained unless the drugs
issue was confronted and a referendum held at the October election, Chief
Minister Gary Humphries warned yesterday.

Figures for the past 12 months show the total number of offences declined
by 12 per cent - the biggest one-year fall in crime rates in Canberra's
history.

But Mr Humphries said the drug referendum must be held if the Government
were to deal with illicit drug use and its impact on crime.

A recent study found that almost 60 per cent of intravenous heroin users in
the ACT said they had committed at least one crime in the past month.

"The message from this is that we are not able to sustain the sort of
improvements we have seen in the territory unless we deal also with the
underlying causes of drug use," Mr Humphries said.

He had no doubt such policies would dramatically affect the rates of crime
in the community.

The Chief Minister called on those MLAs who had not yet made a decision
about the referendum to seriously consider the need to take it to the
people of Canberra.

The Labor Party has said it would not support a referendum; Health Minister
Michael Moore has yet to make a decision and Independents Paul Osborne and
Dave Rugendyke support some of the questions to be asked in a referendum.

The proposed referendum at the October election would ask the community if
it wanted a safe injecting room trial in the ACT, the provision of heroin
to addicts under medical supervision and a Naltrexone detoxification program.

Mr Humphries said the drugs issue would not be addressed unless the
political deadlock was broken.

"The referendum is clearly the most appropriate way of doing that," he said.

The Liberal Party would accept the decision of the people and if they did
not want such options, other alternatives would be looked at.

"We need to put this to the people," Mr Humphries said. "We need to be
trying things, trying new solutions and that's why this approach is the
right approach."

Mr Humphries presented the first draft of the three questions to Cabinet
yesterday with the proposal to go to the Assembly next week.

He was willing to negotiate over the wording of the questions and even the
issue of Naltrexone, but the safe injecting room trial and heroin
supervision program were a critical part of the referendum.

But Opposition Leader Jon Stanhope said the referendum was appalling, cheap
politics.

"It is a stunt, it is nonsense and a sign of a party that does not have a
policy on drugs," he said.

The Labor Party did not support the referendum on principle although it
supported safe injecting room trials and a national supervised heroin
program. However, the issue of Naltrexone was absolutely "absurd' and
"bizarre".

Independent Dave Rugendyke said yesterday he supported a referendum on the
issues of a safe injecting room trial and heroin trial because they were
illegal activities in which the public needed to have a say. But he would
not support any referendum on the issue of Naltrexone.

Independent Paul Osborne also supported the idea of a referendum, but
wanted to see the questions first.

He supported questions on shooting galleries and the heroin trial but said
the issue of Naltrexone was "ridiculous".