CARNLEY'S PLEA: GIVE DRUG TRIAL A GO

THE head of the Anglican Church in Australia, Archbishop Peter Carnley, has
called for free heroin and a safe place to inject for Perth addicts.

Dr Carnley, the Archbishop of Perth, wants the measures tried as part of a
broad drugs strategy.

He told The West Australian that there was not a single solution to the
heroin crisis which has claimed 42 lives in WA this year. He has called on
all those involved to work together to prevent more deaths.

Dr Carnley's comments came after Federal Labor leader Kim Beazley backed
free heroin and injecting rooms for addicts last week. Prime Minister John
Howard opposes both.

In State Parliament, Democrats MLC Norm Kelly is pushing for an inquiry
into safe injecting rooms and the prescription of heroin to addicts. But
the State Government is likely to oppose the inquiry.

Dr Carnley said it was impossible to know if safe injecting rooms or heroin
prescription programs worked unless they were put to the test.

Neither measure would encourage non-drug users to begin the habit.
Governments already provided needles to minimise the harm. "You would see
safe injecting rooms as simply the next step in saving lives," he said. "It
does not mean that you are condoning drugs any more than providing needles
does."

He said there should be more than one safe injecting room in Perth to
assess whether the idea worked. "For a genuine trial you need more than one
safe injecting room. For one (room) to head off overdoses is too much to
expect," Dr Carnley said.

The central city Trinity parish of the Uniting Church has offered to
provide an injecting room.

Dr Carnley said while he was not an expert in drug addiction, he believed
there was a case to head off the drugs black market by providing clean
heroin in a controlled fashion. That happened now in Switzerland.

But he did not support free heroin for addicts on an indefinite basis. It
had to be provided in the short term with counselling.

The aim would be to get those on the heroin trial to use an alternative,
such as naltrexone. Dr Carnley said some governments in Australia were
involved in the growing of opium for the production of morphine and other
drugs.