WE LAWYERS BACK THE HEROIN TRIAL

YOUR EDITORIAL on the spread of heroin (CT, September 17) raises important
questions for the whole community.

Clearly the whole community, or a majority of it, does not use heroin, but
for those who do the results both socially and legally can be tragic.

Chief Justice Miles is well aware of these consequences, as are the other
judges and magistrates of our courts.

The Chief Justice was making the valid point that the use of heroin is so
widespread that the police are now unlikely to charge people solely because
of possession of a small quantity for personal use.

No-one who has experience of the lives and actions of drug-dependant people
can be indifferent to it, but the reality is that police resources are
generally directed towards the control of supply and promotion of drugs.

The Law Society of the ACT supports the Law Council of Australia's policy
of dealing with drug use as a social and medical issue, rather than solely
a legal one.

For this reason we support the proposed heroin trial in the ACT.

C. G. Chenoweth, President, The Law Society of the ACT