APPLAUSE FOR PLAN, WITH A WARNING

There was almost universal acceptance of the principles that would underpin
the premier's new Drug Prevention Council, welfare experts said last night,
but one key outreach organisation remained unconvinced that it would result
in practical solutions for drug addicts.

While the Salvation Army offered its enthusiastic support for the statutory
body, and the renewed emphasis on all kinds of drug prevention, street
outreach organisation Open Family was sceptical about the potential for
real benefits for young drug users.

"We are obviously open to anything that's going to get a practical impact
for young people," said Open Family chief executive Nathan Stirling.

"But we have the benefit of 20 years of experience and you can just see the
whole discussion going around in ever-increasing circles. It all depends on
what comes out of these things, but so often nothing does. For those of us
working actually at the street level, it's dejavu," he said.

The chief executive of VicHealth and a key member of the Drug Policy Expert
Committee, Rob Moodie, welcomed the idea of an statutory body to oversee
drug prevention in Victoria. Mr Moodie told the joint parliamentary sitting
it would need to have "teeth and authority".

It was also strongly backed by the government's independent drug expert,
David Penington, who said the council should have legislative status and
include MPs from both sides of politics.

Salvation Army spokesman John Dalziel strongly endorsed the idea. "What it
really is, is a continuous presence, so that we don't have to go from one
joint parliamentary sitting to the next one. We've got this continuous
council that says drugs are important, and will ensure the best possible
information and education, harm minimisation, detoxification and
rehabilitation prevention. There is almost universal acceptance of those
basic principles," he said.

"We're concentrating on everything that everyone agrees with, so let's make
it work. Prevention is the number one priority."

The joint parliamentary sitting was told prevention needed to be holistic,
and it had been proven that education programs or advertising campaigns
alone did not work.

On their own, said Turning Point director Margaret Hamilton, they had
minimal preventive value and were "a waste of community resources".

A better understanding of the paths that led young people from soft drugs
to more dangerous drugs, such as heroin, was needed to strengthen
prevention programs, she said.