SAVING LIVES MUST COME FIRST

It verges on the immoral that the United Nations International
Narcotics Control Board should urge Australia to focus on long-term
strategies of reducing illicit drug supply and demand at the expense
of saving lives today (``UN hits heroin room,'' Daily Telegraph,
February 21).

Any responsible, comprehensive policy to manage drug misuse includes
supply-reduction, demand-reduction and harm-reduction strategies.
Australia has an ongoing commitment to these three strands, although
sometimes the allocation of funds is less than balanced.

The UN report states the obvious -- harm-reduction strategies such as
needle and syringe exchanges, or supervised injecting facilities, or
prescribed heroin, will not reduce drug use immediately for those who
are heavily dependent. That is not the aim. But these sorts of
strategies will, and do, keep people alive and this offers the hope
of future treatment and support.

Also, harm-reduction strategies serve the public good by making
everyone's community safer -- fewer discarded needles, less public
nuisance, less crime. These are worthy goals.

To suggest that the harm-reduction agenda dominates Australian drug
policy at the expense of other strategies is nonsensical. But it is
one vital component of a policy that has had considerable relative
success over the years. The evidence is compelling that those
countries that do not have a comprehensive drug strategy, or are
almost totally reliant on one aspect such as law enforcement, do not
have success in addressing the individual and community harms from
drugs.

Bill Stronach,
Chief Executive,
Australian Drug Foundation