WHILE WE DO NOTHING THE DRUGS RUIN LIVES

Drugs are back on the agenda. Thank God. Because for every month we do
nothing, drug abuse destroys the lives of more and more young people. And
increasingly it is not just strangers, but our family and friends who are
suffering.

In recent times the political debate has become all too hard - unlike drug
use, which is sadly becoming all too easy.

In the past five years I have seen the drug scene evolve into something more
sinister than the youthful experimentation that my group of friends indulged
in in the early '90s.

At 21 I took my first LSD trip, at a nightclub. In fact it was only half of
a trip - I shared with a friend. It was wonderful. I remember laughing at a
chocolate pancake that started breathing; the heightened sense of color and
perceptions.

About five years later, I shared my first ecstasy pill. Meanwhile, others
were experimenting with speed, cocaine and heroin.

It all seemed fine. We were drug users, yes, but it was restrained use. We
were old enough to take precautions. We understood it was risky, and
realised that the next day we had to meet study or work commitments. We were
in control.

Or so we thought.

That sassy self-confidence changed about two years ago. Firstly, a friend
who smoked copious amounts of marijuana and sucked one too many tabs,
developed schizophrenia. Then another friend's boyfriend became a heroin
addict. And, finally, I reported on an Earthcore rave for this newspaper.

At the festival, promoted as drug-free, I stumbled upon a group of
drugged-out teenagers. And I don't mean youths. They were kids.

One was a beautiful, intelligent and articulate girl from North Balwyn. She
was 15, and had taken two ecstasy tablets, a tab of LSD and some speed the
previous night. She said she took her first E when she was 12. I was amazed
and distressed. I asked her whether her parents knew she was at the rave.
She laughed and said, "Sure."

When she said that, I remembered a conversation I had overheard on a tram a
couple of days earlier, between two chatty mothers weighed down with
Christmas shopping. They were discussing how their children were celebrating
New Year's Eve. One excitedly said her son was heading to Earthcore; she
seemed blissfully ignorant of the associations between drugs and the rave
scene.

What I find so extraordinary about the drug debate is that it is led by
people who have taken far too long to realise drug abuse is a widespread
problem. Even today, our PM still believes zero tolerance should be the
central weapon against drug use.

There seems to be all this goodwill and good intentions, but little effect.
And time is of the essence. We can't wait for international studies to be
set up and analysed before considering adopting similar measures for
Australia. That process takes years, and developing a drug addiction takes
months, maybe weeks.

Why can't Australia lead the world, instead of following? Let's not just
think about managing the problem, but eradicating it. Let's distinguish
between recreational drug use and drug abuse - the first a health issue, the
second a scourge that threatens to create a new underclass. Let's look
beyond law enforcement, harm minimisation and prevention. Let's at least
consider how some form of legalisation and officially controlled
distribution might work.

But, most importantly, let's not do nothing. Because drug pushers finding
new markets in Australia aren't waiting for the world to discover a solution
for us.