MESSAGES MATTER. LET'S GET IT RIGHT

You are right about heroin, Dr Napthine, messages do matter. Governments
occupy too symbolically central a place in Australian society to pretend
otherwise.

But the meanings of messages can be elusive. When the previous premier was
spruiking the virtues of Crown Casino, was that the right message on
gambling? When he was emasculating the auditor-general, was that the right
message on democracy?

The various readings of messages do matter, just maybe, as experts argue, it
is the rejection of authority implicit in heroin's initial use that helps
lend it its transient and often tragic attraction. And just maybe a trial of
sterile government-supervised injecting rooms would not be read as promoting
drug use by present and potential users out in the folkways. Maybe even the
opposite.

We can be sure of one thing: the weight of decades of failed prohibitionist
drug policies will at some point force a future Liberal Party to fully,
creatively and courageously tackle the heroin issue.

Until then, many of us will continue to weep silent tears of frustration and
rage over a political party whose concern over messages is so selective.

MARK MOUNTFORD, South Yarra