DRUG REFORM 'HAS NOT SPELT POLITICAL DOOM'

The NSW Drug Summit has yet to deliver direct benefits to drug users
or their families but it is proof that radical drug law reform does
not spell electoral doom for governments, a seminar has been told.

Organised by the University of Sydney's Institute of Criminology, last
night's mini-conference looked at the effectiveness of the historic
summit 12 months on.

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Nicholas Cowdery, QC, said
that while there were glimmers of hope from the Drug Court trial, it
was a "fallback initiative which predated the summit".

Mr Cowdery said the Government had paid selective attention to the
principles and recommendations of the summit, and cited the failure to
trial medically prescribed heroin as a major shortfall. "When the USA,
the inventor of prohibition, directs Australia not to deviate from the
one true path, we obey," he said.

However, the director of Drug and Alcohol Services at St Vincent's
Hospital, Dr Alex Wodak, said: "The drug summit did not damage the NSW
Government politically. Communities no longer fall for populist
rhetoric about drugs. They now want results."

Ms Annie Madden, the executive officer of the Australian I.V. League,
who represented drug users at the summit, said the summit had brought
little or no benefit to most people affected by drug use.