CHILDREN'S DETOX UNIT ESSENTIAL: MAGISTRATE

Canberra's specialist children's magistrate has repeated calls for a
residential detoxification unit for young drug users, rather than
exposing them to further negative impacts by sending them interstate.

Magistrate Shane Madden repeated what other magistrates have said over
several years -- that Canberra needs a special detoxification unit for
children. His remarks came yesterday in the course of sending a
17-year-old drug-addicted repeat offender to a juvenile institution
until March next year.

The boy, who turns 18 at the end of the month, was convicted of 21
charges, including a violent bag-snatch attempt in Wanniassa in April;
a similar, successful offence at the Calwell playing fields the same
month; another violent assault; and 16 offences of credit-card misuse.
Mr Madden said the offender was a pleasant and likeable young man with
strong parental support. He had been using heroin and cannabis daily
since the age of 13. Mr Madden said the boy had been sent to a
church-run detoxification cehtre in NSW earlier this year. He had left
after two weeks, citing drugs on the premises and that he felt safer
in Canberra.

"If it were true a church-run organisation was a 'haven for drugs' it
would be astounding, but then nothing surprises me these days," he
said. "The sooner our children have both a residential and
detoxification centre available here in Canberra, with medical
facilities and an opportunity to advance their education, the better."