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