A MATURE RESPONSE TO DRUG ABUSE

Sometimes calamities affect not only those directly involved, but also
those who witness them. So it is with the illicit drugs and the toll they
are taking on Victorians. As the years have rolled on, the reflex response
to censure and punish users has given way to a desire to understand the
reason drugs such as heroin are consumed and a wish to ameliorate their
more harmful effects.

This more compassionate and mature response partly reflects the breadth of
the problem.

No class or group in society is immune to drug abuse, and, anecdotally at
least, most people know of someone who has been affected by addiction.

Wednesday's joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament to discuss a drugs
strategy reflected the depth of the community's concern.

The state's politicians fittingly put aside their bickering and
partisanship to listen to the speakers who appeared before them. The
sitting was proposed by the recently retired police commissioner, Neil
Comrie, who told our elected representatives that they were part of the
problem.

Victorians wanted action on drugs, he said, not party politicking that
stopped progress being made. He called for an independent statutory
authority to devise an anti-drugs strategy.

The government has responded with an announcement that it will set up an
independent drug prevention council to advise on drug education and
strategies to deter use. The council will not have the power of a statutory
authority, but this is not necessary.

Premier Steve Bracks has promised that $25 million a year will be spent on
drugs services.

The council will need a healthy budget to help it with its task of
reversing a worsening, but - if field workers such as Peter Wearne are to
be believed - not intractable problem. It is good that the government has
continued to take an initiative on drugs despite last year's setback over a
heroin injecting room trial.

The Age believes that such a trial may have saved lives, and would
therefore have been worthwhile but, as the summit made clear, injecting
rooms would only ever be a partial response to a complex phenomenon.

Although the research and education programs that will be undertaken by the
council are important, it is also important that drug abuse be seen in the
context of the wider society.

While there is no one reason for drug addiction, high rates of youth and
long-term unemployment are often cited as being inextricably bound up with
it. This suggests that providing a meaningful role for those who are now on
the margins - no easy task - may be part of the answer, too. As politicians
and families struggle with the effects of drug abuse, it is becoming better
understood that the health, or otherwise, of the wider society, also needs
to be examined; it cannot be seen as separate from the body of the addict.