THE STORY SO FAR

Facing Up To The Task

David Penington was appointed chief adviser to the fledgling Bracks
Government in November last year, after Labor went to the election
promising to introduce legislation that would enable the establishment
of supervised injecting rooms in five Melbourne municipalities, three
of which eventually agreed to proceed. The injecting room plan has
since been scuttled by the State Opposition, led by Denis Napthine,
left, although Dr Penington claims the idea has broad community
support as well as official backing from many parts of the medical and
legal professions.

Four years earlier, Dr Penington advised the then premier, Jeff
Kennett, below, on drug reform, which led to the previous government's
Turning The Tide initiative, but his recommendations to decriminalise
the use of cannabis in conjunction with a campaign against the drug's
excessive and hazardous use, was not adopted.

All the while, the heroin trade has been increasing on the streets of
Melbourne. According to the Drug Policy Expert Committee, the number
of young people under 16 who have used heroin increased from less than
1per cent in 1993 to 7 per cent in 1998, almost 1000 children have
been orphaned as a result of their parents overdosing in recent years,
and 359 Victorians died of heroin-related deaths last year - more than
the combined national totals of heroin deaths in the Netherlands and
Switzerland in the previous year.

Why The Escalation?

Prohibition of illicit drugs can be traced back to 1952 when, at the
Geneva Convention, Australia agreed to enact laws that would "limit
exclusively to medical and scientific purposes the manufacture,
import, sale, distribution, export and use of medicinal opium,
cocaine, morphine, Indian hemp and heroin".

Heroin was first used recreationally in Australia in the 1960s, when
American troops, on respite from fighting in Vietnam, brought it with
them. Since then, Australia's extensive coastline and its nearness to
Asian opium fields has meant heroin has become relatively cheap,
increasingly pure and easily accessible on Australian streets.

The committee notes that it is impossible to control the supply of
heroin. The highly organised illegal drug market is increasingly
global, characterised by high profits and sophisticated marketing, and
opium production last year reached a new peak, enabling the
manufacture of almost 600 tonnes of heroin. Drug seizures have never
accounted for more than 15per cent of global production, and
apparently have no impact on the street price or availability.

The Thorny Proposition

The concept of a medically supervised heroin trial, where addicts
would be prescribed heroin in the short term and then encouraged into
other treatment programs, gained bipartisan political support in
Victoria, but plans for a trial in Canberra involving 40 registered
addicts were abruptly dumped in August, 1997, when Prime Minister John
Howard refused to lend it the necessary support of federal cabinet. Mr
Howard has since made it clear that while he is Prime Minister a trial
will not go ahead, partly because he fears it will send the wrong
signal and partly because he feels most Australians would not support
it.

"I don't claim any sort of a monopoly on wisdom," he said at the time.
"I am a human being, I am a father and I am Prime Minister, and I am
trying to bring the best judgment that I can."

The Thinking Behind The Trials

A heroin trial would present addicts with an initial alternative to
methadone programs, which have been hampered by a well-documented
shortage in the number of doctors willing to prescribe it and
pharmacists prepared to dispense it. There is also rapid
detoxification using the drug Naltrexone, but health advisers recently
decided against federal subsidies for the drug because they felt not
enough scientific evidence existed about its benefits for heroin
addicts. New pharmacotherapies include buprenorphine, which should be
available by prescription from GPs soon, LAAM and slow-release oral
morphine. Dr Penington says heroin trials have been successful
overseas, and a new "multi-centred" trial is about to start in Germany.

Now The 'Stage Two' Approach

Injecting rooms were the focus of stage one of the committee's latest
report, while stage two urges the Bracks Government to invest heavily
in prevention and treatment services, reiterating the importance of
impressing on young people the hazards of marijuana use before they
graduate to harder drugs like heroin. This time, though, it stops
short of advocating decriminalisation.

The strategy is designed to halt the escalation in illicit drug abuse
in the absence, for the moment at least, of more radical proposals
such as injecting rooms and heroin trials.

The Victorian Government, which has already implemented some drug
strategies such as a $1 million parent support program and a joint $12
million diversion program with the Commonwealth for extra treatment
services, is considering the recommendations in the report and will
announce its response within the next month.