DRUG POLICIES DO NOT WORK, AND CAUSE HARM

THAT the International Narcotics Control Board has expressed its confidence
in our Government's "comprehensive'' approach to the drug menace rings
hollow for me. Experiencing the loss of my brother to heroin overdose, a
friend whose 20-year-old daughter is in gaol on drug charges, a workmate
who now refuses to take her children to the public library as its toilets
are used as the local injecting room, and countless friends whose cars and
houses have been subject to theft, all in the name of prohibition and
INCB-friendly policies, means I have no faith in my Government nor in the
United Nations in general.

The most basic community values of family support and human dignity have
been so eroded by the zero-tolerance and tough strategies that I will no
longer apply the message they send. I will protect my children and their
friends from the "law'' which is meant to protect them, and refuse to
cooperate with policies which show nothing but further harm and
destruction. I have no faith in the system set up to manage this situation
for I have seen it in action and it just doesn't work. For my own, I would
resort to my own interventions should the need arise.

For I know I could save my kids and my family, and that's what really counts.

BRONWYN BARNARD
Kaleen