REPORT SMACKS OF SOUR GRIPES

The war against drugs, which critics claimed was pointless, is apparently
having an effect -- heroin is in short supply on the streets of Sydney.

It sure sounds like a minor victory to me.

But far from this being a cause for celebration, a Sydney Morning Herald
report finds that it is all bad news. Why? Because heroin addicts are being
forced into using methadone, applying for detoxification, and feeling
anxious about overdosing when supplies are "inevitably" restored.

Firstly, let's say that we hope that supplies of smack aren't restored and
offer a hearty congratulations to Joint Asian Crime Squad, the Australian
Federal Police, Customs and the National Crime Authority and local police
whose busts have resulted in reducing the amount of smack available.

The Herald, which has long supported the use of heroin with lifestyle
articles putting the case for chic middle-class drug users who are able to
"manage" their habits, takes a somewhat different point of view.

It breathlessly reports that the shortage has forced junkies into, wait for
it, Naltrexone clinics and private detoxification clinics from Edgecliff to
Fairfield and Campbelltown (which is really on the outskirts of the
Herald's inner-urban focused coverage).

Why, says the newspaper, "some local distributors had withdrawn from the
market, at least in the short term, unwilling to gamble with increased
risks of detection".

Hey, isn't that the sort of result we've been hoping for, or am I missing
something here too?

Don't we all want to put dealers out of business? Don't we want to frighten
them by making the risks of detection too great to ignore? Or is the
Herald's reporter implying that there has been too much policing? Is the
reporter saying heroin supplies should have been allowed to flow into the
arms of junkies who, after all, are only using drugs because, let's be
honest, they get a kick from them and that's their right as lying,
cheating, stealing, inherently dishonest addicts?

Tony Trimingham, who has made a career out of issuing a particular brand of
advice to parents of junkies ever since one of his own children tragically
died of an overdose, says the shortage is causing "some terrible problems
for families and real concern of a rise in deaths if supply is restored and
users lose tolerance".

Perhaps Mr Trimingham should look again. Perhaps there is a real
opportunity being presented by the glass (or needle) being half empty.

Perhaps some of those junkies being forced to consider detoxification and
other forms of treatment because of the smack shortage are being given a
chance their indulgent parents and the ever complacent harm minimilisation
supporters in the Health Department and at St Vincent's compliant Drug and
Alcohol Services unit don't wish to recognise.

(Harm reduction has done little to increase the spread of illegal drug
abuse, as the International Narcotics Control Board noted in its annual
report released yesterday.)

The sub-plot to the Herald's entire coverage of the drug issue has been one
of tacit acceptance.

When the authorities are seen to be winning though, the newspaper should
have the decency to acknowledge the victory, not sniffle and quibble about
the risks of saving junkies from their addictions.