DRUG TALKS UMPIRES PLEDGE TO HEAR ALL

The two people who will chair the coming community drug summit have pledged
to bring opposing views together and give the State Government practical
approaches to tackling illicit drugs.

Health Minister Bob Kucera yesterday announced that Murdoch University
chancellor and former Federal MP Fred Chaney and Edith Cowan University
deputy vice-chancellor Liz Harman would head the August summit.

The co-chairmen will be assisted by a 23-year-old youth representative, a
former illicit drug user called Jade.

Mr Kucera said it was a balanced group. He has indicated that safe
injecting rooms, heroin trials and cannabis decriminalisation will be on
the agenda.

Mr Chaney said the co-chairmen were not experts in the area.

"We are people who are used to bringing different views together in the
hope of getting the best possible outcome," Mr Chaney said."We have to make
sure all points of view are understood in this process. All points of view
can't be agreed with, but they all need to be understood.

"There's no single answer - that's the one thing we do know. "There are a
lot of different people out there who do great work and I think bringing
them together and getting them to pool their experience holds out the best
hope about making some progress in this area."

The first advertisement for applications to become summit delegates appears
in The West Australian today.

There will be 80 delegates from the general community and 20 from
stakeholders such as health groups. Community drug summit director Denzil
McCotter said the summit wanted to attract the widest possible
representation of the WA community who had an interest in illicit drug problems.