POLITICAL UNITY VITAL IN FIGHT: HAMER

Former Victorian Liberal premier Sir Rupert Hamer has called for
leadership from Canberra - from both sides of politics - to tackle the
nation's heroin crisis.

But providing prescription heroin to registered addicts was not yet a
practical solution, he said yesterday.

Sir Rupert, a Liberal statesman well respected for his progressive
social stance, supports supervised injecting rooms and prescription
heroin for addicts to reduce the problems of illicit drug use.

He told the annual meeting of the Turning Point Drug and Alcohol
Centre yesterday that politicians and the public were still uneasy
about heroin trials and that immediate priority should be given to
boosting drug education, treatment, and research into the biological
effects of addiction, combined with a vigorous Transport Accident
Commission-style advertising campaign aimed at removing "any glamor or
excitement" from drug taking.

Sir Rupert said Victorian MPs should put aside their political
allegiances and embrace recommendations contained in the Drug Policy
Expert Committee's final report on drug reform, which committee
chairman David Penington handed to the State Government this week.

The report suggested that Victoria be ready to proceed with a heroin
trial if the political climate changed. The Federal Government is
emphatically opposed to a trial of supervised injecting rooms.

Sir Rupert said problems emerging from laws allowing South Australians
to grow up to 10 marijuana plants - such as lucrative deals to supply
cannabis to distributors in other states - demonstrated the need for a
coordinated national, as well as a bipartisan, approach.

The Penington report proposes changing the law that prohibits the use
of dangerous drugs, in an effort to encourage addicts to dispose of
their syringes safely, and urged the Bracks Government to press ahead
with plans for a heroin trial in spite of Prime Minister John Howard's
emphatic rejection of the idea.

Under the law change, possession and trafficking would remain a
crime.

In August Sir Rupert made a public plea in The Age for the Liberal
Party to support the Bracks Government's plan to begin a trial of
supervised injecting rooms. His plea infuriated the State Opposition.