DRUG CAMPAIGN NOT HARD LINE ENOUGH FOR PM

A $16 million anti-drugs campaign has suddenly been withdrawn after the
Prime Minister's office intervened in the production of a drug information
booklet designed for parents.

The booklet, due to be mailed to more than a million households this month,
was criticised as not tough enough, and is believed to have been rewritten
by a senior member of Mr Howard's staff.

This has angered health officials and members of an Australian National
Council on Drugs reference committee, set up specially to oversee the strategy.

Last night a spokeswoman for Mr Howard said: "Because the Government has to
take final responsibility [for the campaign] it is normal practice for
officers to make comments and appropriate changes."

The campaign, originally to have been launched by the Prime Minister in the
middle of this month, was to begin with a series of television and
newspaper advertisements followed by delivery of the booklet to parents. A
campaign targeting young people was to follow later in the year.

It is understood part of the decision to postpone was to "allow for clear
air" because of a congestion of events until after the Olympics.

Two of the draft documents, both obtained by the Herald,reveal that Mr
Howard's office has shifted the focus of the message to parents from an
educational guide, explaining both legal and illegal drugs and advising
tentative questioning and discussion with teenagers, to a more
authoritarian parental approach.

The rewritten booklet is titled: "Our Strongest Weapon Against Drugs ...
Families", and contains new statistics and information which health sources
describe as unscientific, such as the statement that "studies overseas
reveal that young people from families who eat together at least five times
a week are less likely to be involved with drugs".

Further statistics, attributed in the foreword to a body called Partnership
for a Drug Free America, state: "Research from overseas suggests that those
who learn from their parents about the dangers of drugs are 36 per cent
less likely to smoke marijuana than those who don't. They are 56 per cent
less likely to use cocaine, 65 per cent less likely to use LSD."

Sources say the changes were undertaken by Mr Howard's social policy
adviser, Mr John Perrin, who attended an alternative drug summit in Sydney
last month organised by proponents of "zero tolerance" drug policies.

The summit, chaired by the Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters, featured a
number of speakers who warned parents of the gateway theory linking
marijuana use and heroin abuse, and of alarming, unsubstantiated links
between marijuana abuse and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

The summit issued a series of recommendations, including a call for parents
to unite and fight the liberalisation of drug laws and harm minimisation
intitiatives such as the trial of medically supervised heroin injecting rooms.

A source told the Herald: "Material provided to parents, particularly under
the Prime Minister's imprimatur, must be backed and guided by legitimate
research, by science. The tension [about the booklet] is not even over what
[he] thinks personally but about the unsourced, unscientific, frankly quite
doubtful nature of some of the material quoted.

"The fear is that parents are to be provided with information that is
simply not backed by any legitimate, published research."

Last night, a member of the Australian National Council on Drugs reference
group, Mr Tony Trimingham, said: "This bears no relation to the document
that I have seen. There has been a clear elimination of legal drugs like
alcohol and tobacco which we were very keen to retain. After all, mixing
alcohol with illicit drugs can have fatal consequences.

"The cover has changed. I hate the idea of the family identified as a
'weapon', and I object to the emphasis on black and white strategies which
tell teenagers what to do rather than discussion ... they are trying to
have parents impose attitudes and ideas on kids, as if somehow that is
going to work ... Research shows us that control and direction only leads
to more resistance and underground activity."

The original drafts of the anti-drugs booklet are based on two years'
research and planning. All information was to undergo focus testing before
final approval, to make sure parents could be provided with approaches
known to be the most successful with teenagers.

Significantly, during focus testing, parents reacted negatively to the
tough-on-drugs approach. Focus testing also showed that teenagers do not
respond to authoritarian discussion about drugs, and question their own
parents' use of licit drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco.

The new booklet states: "The most effective deterrent to drug use amongst
young people is a parent who is devoted to spending time with them ...
someone who talks about their friends, what goes on at school, the sport
they play, what interests them.

"Monitoring your child's activities doesn't mean you don't trust them. It
means you care enough to be involved."

Mr Howard's foreword calls on parents and the community to "hold its
nerve": "Real leadership that upholds community values demands that we get
tough on drugs, not tough on the people with the problem."