DRUG RETHINK

WHAT a landmark week for Footscray and Maribyrnong council.

We had the release of the draft illicit drug report and a major drug bust in
Footscray.

We, as a community, have a council representing us that wants to have a
legalised injecting facility -- with no drugs to be provided (page three
draft summary), yet on page 20 of the draft report we have:

"Council write to the Federal Government stating its support for making
heroin available to addicts by prescription."

We also have the face of social workers in the West, Les Twentyman,
commenting on the significant drug seizure (November 24, Channel 7 news).

He stated that we have a lot of stressed-out addicts, and now after this
seizure, they are going to be even more stressed out. Which side are you on,
Les?

One of the underlying problems is that we have people like this giving
advice to government/council -- no wonder the authorities have a hard time
trying to get it right.

The sooner these agencies admit that their 'softly softly' approach does not
work, we may be able to make some progress in this major health epidemic.

Ray Allinson, Seddon