DRUG TESTS CALL A 'CHEAP SLUR'

A CALL for compulsory drug testing of public servants on the basis
that liberalisation policies were motivated by personal drug use was
an "extraordinary and cheap slur", a drug expert said yesterday.

The Salvation Army's Brian Watters, who was appointed by the Prime
Minister to chair the Australian National Council on Drugs, had
earlier called for federal and state civil service contracts to make
provision for random but mandatory testing of urine and, if necessary,
blood.

He further urged politicians to volunteer for drug tests, as he had
himself once done - and would do again "any day, any time" - because
"I should be above suspicion and be able to demonstrate I'm living a
drug-free life".

His proposals, partly triggered by suggestions in NSW last week that
addicts whose children had been removed into welfare should be tested
to prove they were free of drugs before they regained custody, are
likely to be addressed at the May meeting of the national council.

But they were coolly received last night by the federal and NSW
governments and drug treatment specialists.

James Bell, director of a drug treatment centre in inner Sydney, said
it was one thing to test people if there was genuine reason to believe
they were impaired by drugs.

"But it's an extraordinary and cheap slur to suggest drug policy is
being driven by drug use," he said.

Dr Bell accused Major Watters of "trying to label your opponents as
bad people, instead of addressing the issues".

A spokeswoman for the acting Minister for Justice and Customs,
Attorney-General Daryl Williams, said the Howard Government already
had a "tough on drugs" policy, targeting importers and other suppliers
at source, and funding health treatment programs.

A spokeswoman for Deputy NSW Premier Andrew Refshauge said the Carr
Government opposed diverting resources into tests on public servants.

Major Watters said his main targets for drug testing would be
government employees at senior, policy-making levels of the nation's
health bureaucracies. He believed departments had become top-heavy
with "liberals" influencing a "steady drift towards acceptance,
tolerance and what in some cases almost comes close to a facilitation
of people's drug use", particularly in NSW, Victoria, South Australia
and the ACT.

"I believe that there's a significant lobby in the civil service in
NSW who are driving drugs strategy and who believe that a more liberal
attitude is the way to go . . . These people are certainly driven by
their own personal convictions. Some could be influenced by their own
drug use," Major Watters said.

"I know people in the formulation of policy who have told me privately
they use drugs."