HARDLINERS TO HAVE PM'S EAR

Prime Minister John Howard has purged his drug advisory body, removing
many advocates of law reform and instead including some supporters of
the hard-line zero-tolerance approach.

It is believed that five members of the Australian National Council on
Drugs, which is headed by the Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters, will
not have their terms renewed.

They include the outspoken founder of Family Drug Support, Tony
Trimingham, and Wesley Noffs, also a strong advocate of
harm-minimisation policies.

Wayne Hall, the head of the University of NSW National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre, has resigned. Also to go are Karen Hart, a former head
of the national School Principals Association and a supporter of drug
education in schools, and Jude Byrne, a representative of drug users.

Mr Howard's changes to the 15-member council, expected to be announced
today, will significantly change the balance of views on the body.

The five are expected to be replaced by: Ann Bressington, of the SA
Drugbeat project and a zero-tolerance and naltrexone proponent; David
Crosbie, of the Victorian Odyssey House program; Garth Popple, of a NSW
drugs program; and another representative of the abstinence-based
Narcotics Anonymous program, John Saunders, a Queensland-based academic
researcher.

One other still unconfirmed representative of abstinence-based
treatments is believed to be from Alice Springs.