IGNORE US ADVICE, SAYS DRUG EXPERT

Australia was leading the world in drug management policies and should
ignore United States pressure to abandon safe injecting rooms, an
American drugs expert has said.

Professor Ernest Drucker, in Australia to talk to federal MPs and
study drug harm minimisation policies, said Australia's drug policies
were advanced and Australians should look to countries other than the
US for advice. "It's like turning to the Soviet Union to help with
agriculture," he said.

Professor Drucker, from the New York Montefiore Medical Centre, said
the US had focused on prohibition rather than regulation, resulting in
more overdose deaths, more people in jail, more drug users and less
treatment.