WRONG MESSAGE, SAYS PM

Heroin injecting rooms in Victoria would send the wrong message to the
world that Australia supported drug use rather than rehabilitation and
it would draw criminals into local communities, Prime Minister John
Howard said yesterday.

Mr Howard blasted the state's plan to set up five supervised injecting
rooms in the city and suburbs and said there was "no clear evidence"
from overseas that they reduced the drug problem or saved lives.

Declaring that Victoria would get "no help of any kind" from the
Federal Government for the injecting rooms, Mr Howard urged local
communities and the Victorian Liberal Party to use any veto power at
their disposal.

But State Opposition Leader Denis Napthine said Victorian Liberals -
who could use their majority in the upper house to block the plan -
would decide independently about whether to support the trial.

He said the party needed to consult with the councils and community,
and see the proposed legislation, before deciding whether to support
or reject such a "radical social experiment". He said: "We in the
Liberal Party certainly will respect the views of the Prime Minister
but we will fundamentally make up our mind on the basis of what we
think is in the best interests of the situation here in Victoria."

A prominent reform advocate accused Mr Howard of closing his mind to
overseas evidence on injecting rooms.

Dr Alex Wodack, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform
Foundation, said the most persuasive statistic was that there had not
been a single fatal overdose in a supervised injecting room in almost
15 years.

Dr Wodack said harm-minimisation measures, including supervised
injecting rooms, were no longer controversial in Europe, but accepted.
"It seems this is only controversial in Kirribilli," he said.

Mr Howard, speaking on radio 3AW, said he did not support the
injecting rooms because "they give a degree of acceptability" to drug
use. "They create local difficulties as far as the location of them
are concerned.

"They have the potential to attract criminal elements to areas where
they do not now go," he told radio 3AW.

"Overall, I think they say to the world well we've given up on trying
to persuade people not to start taking drugs."

Mr Howard stepped up pressure on the states to spend more on
rehabilitation and cracking down on drug dealers. He last year
announced a $110 million tough on drugs diversionary program.

Victoria stands to receive $23 million over four years. But the money
has not been delivered because the State Government has not yet signed
an agreement with the Federal Government.

The agreement requires the state to guarantee that police and the
courts will have the power to divert minor drug offenders into
education and rehabilitation programs.

Police would also have formal power to direct people in possession of
drugs away from the courts and into compulsory assessment for
treatment or an education course to overcome their drug problem.

"I think the states have dropped the ball in the past on those
programs, but we're putting a lot more money into them and we hope
that they increase their allocations as well," he said.

Mr Howard said it was a mistake to send a signal of acceptability and
harm minimisation rather than deterrence, abstinence in the first
place and rehabilitation.

"I don't hear anybody making an eloquent, articulate case that on the
basis of demonstrated success around the world, this has worked," he
said.

He said World Health Organisation studies were mixed and in some cases
critical.

Mr Howard compared his hard line stand with the anti-smoking campaign,
saying incentives, programs and encouragement gradually changed attitudes.

Victoria's Premier, Steve Bracks, said the state Liberals had been
briefed on the government's drug strategy by Professor David Penington
and had initiated investigations into the drug problem while still in
government.

"I think the Liberals here in Victoria will make up their own mind in
their own time," Mr Bracks said. "I would expect that they would act
not in a partisan political way because the Prime Minister wants them
but in the interests of Victoria and in the interests of harm
minimisation and saving lives."

Mr Bracks said his government was aware of Mr Howard's stance on
injecting rooms before it adopted the drug advisory committee's
recommendation to set up drug injecting facilities.

But, he said, supervised injecting rooms were important as part of a
wider drug strategy in Victoria aimed at helping people who were
suffering the effects of heroin addiction.

"This is all about saving lives. What is happening now is not working
in Victoria, we have more than 80 deaths from heroin already this year
and it is escalating... we must do something different."

Mr Bracks said the government had a four-part strategy that
encompassed prevention, policing, rehabilitation and saving lives
which would minimise harm to drug users and the wider community.

Victoria's supervised injecting facilities will only go ahead if they
are approved by the local councils - Greater Dandenong, Yarra, Port
Phillip, Maribyrnong, and Melbourne - in which they will be located.

So far, only the cities of Yarra and Port Phillip have publicly
supported the trial.