DRUG CAUTION PROGRAM WIDENED

Police will not prosecute young first-time drug offenders under a
program to be introduced state-wide aimed at breaking the
drugs-crime-jail cycle of addicts.

Victorian Health Minister John Thwaites said today successful trials
of the Drug Diversion Pilot Program had prompted the government to
introduce the policy - which cautions rather than prosecutes
first-time offenders caught with small amounts of drugs - across the
state.

Under the program tested since 1998 in Melbourne's north-west suburbs,
teenagers and young adults caught with drugs were cautioned rather
than being prosecuted if they admitted their offence and agreed to
have on-going drug treatment.

Half the people involved in the pilot program were under 21. The
youngest offender was aged 13, Mr Thwaites said. Nearly all those
cautioned were for heroin-related offences, he said.

Mr Thwaites said the program was particularly useful for younger drug
users who were getting into crime for the first time.

"Many of these young people can either go down the path of crime and
drug use and possible death or they can be diverted to a more
productive path to get off the drugs and to get into a safer and
better lifestyle," he said.

Mr Thwaites said the program would be introduced over the next two
years subject to final negotiations with the Federal Government over
funding for more drug treatment centres.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie described the program
as a "pioneering approach to dealing with the drug problem".

The expanded program would help 8000 people a year to access drug
treatment, he said.

"We can't lock ourselves into hard-line approaches. If someone has two
convictions or three convictions for drug abuse and we can effectively
get them into a diversionary program which probably saves their lives
and prevents them from committing crime, then I think it would be
unwise of us to stick to a hard-line approach."

Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said 65 per cent of people in prisons
were there for drug-related offences.

The program would divert drug offenders from the criminal justice
system into rehabilitation, he said.

"Throwing these people into the prison system first off, I think, is
like putting them into a university for crime because if you think
they won't come into contact with drugs in the prison system, you're
kidding yourself."