LIFE AND DEATH BALANCING ACT

Premier Bob Carr explains the thinking behind his conversion to a more
liberal stance on drug policy since the Drug Summit two years ago.

People often ask me how my views on drugs policy have changed. For the most
part, they haven't.

I still find it hard to understand why people choose to risk everything by
experimenting with addictive or deadly substances. I still believe in
personal responsibility.

I also believe legalising heroin is a path to a potentially more disastrous
situation than we face now.

Society already has two legally available drugs -- alcohol and tobacco.
Between them they account for the majority of drug-related deaths. Why risk
making a bad situation worse by legalising more?

My views on drug criminals have not changed either. People who make their
living from other people's misery deserve no mercy. Under my Government,
they face the prospect of life in jail.

I subscribe to "zero tolerance" when it comes to large-scale drug dealers;
when it comes to drugs being brought into schools.

So in many ways my views on drugs have been consistent. There was, however,
a clear message from the Drug Summit.

Heroin use and overdose deaths had been increasing. There were long waiting
times to get into drug treatment. Local communities were expressing
frustration about drug addicted people slumped on footpaths and ambulance
call-outs to dark alleyways.

People were sick of seeing needles and syringes discarded in public places.
There was frustration, too, about large methadone clinics disrupting public
amenity. The view from the summit was that more money was needed for
rehabilitation and we needed to try something new.

I made a commitment on the last day of the summit to take up the best of
the ideas proposed. I warned we would move forward cautiously and that
every initiative would be subject to rigorous evaluation in line with our
evidence-based approach to drugs policy.

On the second anniversary of the summit, I believe we are still feeling our
way.

The medically supervised injecting centre trial has begun and I share the
apprehension many in the community feel about this step.

It is important to remember it is one of literally hundreds of Drug Summit
programs. It will only ever be a tiny part of the bigger picture. It will
be a factor at the margin only.

I have no idea what the outcome of the injecting centre trial will be but I
do believe it deserves a fair go.

Other new ideas came out of the summit. We had already introduced a Drug
Court for adult offenders.

The summit recommended a youth drug court. It has been running since July
2000 and now has about 20 young people participating. These young people
are under supervised rehabilitation.

The cannabis cautioning scheme gives police the option of cautioning first
offenders. In a few months we will introduce a mandatory education session
for people cautioned a second time.

After the summit we also enabled young drug offenders to be dealt with via
youth justice conferencing.

This means police have the option of warning or cautioning young people or
placing them in a formal conference with family members and health workers.

We are trialling a scheme in the Illawarra and Lismore in which drug
offenders can enter treatment as a bail condition set by the magistrate. It
has proved effective.

It is hoped the Federal Government will provide funding for it to be
extended to an additional eight areas over the next 12 months.

These are just some of the many new approaches being trialled as a result
of the summit. I announced another initiative yesterday during my visit to
the Langton Clinic at Surry Hills.

About 70 per cent of people in jail are there because of an offence related
to drugs and alcohol. We have got to stop the revolving door.

This year, eight people will be employed around the state to link former
inmates with the services they need to stop them drifting back to drugs and
crime.

Over the years I have met many people who have had personal experience of
drug addiction. I have met people being treated with a daily dose of
methadone. Yesterday I spoke with young people undergoing a three month
rehabilitation program at the Ted Noffs Foundation.

I have learned people drift into drugs for various reasons. Sometimes it is
the wrong peer group. It could be a poor family life, or an experience of
sexual abuse. It could be simply that drugs are available -- they are
there. Sometimes, after starting as an experiment, users reach a point
where they realise drugs are ruining their lives. They eventually decide it
is time to stop.

As a society we have a responsibility to reach out and help them. And they
have a responsibility to take advantage of the help offered. On that
subject my views have changed little.

Nor on the basic challenge of trying, trying again and again and trying
anything that might work.