PM BOWS TO STATES ON DRUGS

Australia moved closer to its first safe drugs injecting room when
John Howard backed down yesterday on his opposition to the scheme and
the Uniting Church prepared to announce the site for its planned
operation in Sydney's Kings Cross. The Prime Minister ruled out
federal intervention to scuttle the planned heroin injecting rooms in
NSW, Victoria and the ACT, saying he did not believe the commonwealth
had the right to interfere in what was ultimately a decision for the
states.

Under mounting pressure to intervene in West Australian and Northern
Territory mandatory sentencing laws, Mr Howard conceded that states'
rights were paramount in the injecting rooms issue and said he would
allow the NSW, Victorian and ACT governments to push ahead with their
plans.

"I don't . . . agree with heroin injecting rooms but I do accept that
ultimately that is something that is going to be decided by the
states," he told Perth radio.

"If states decide to go ahead with it, unless their going ahead with
it is in direct breach of a federal law - and I am not aware at this
stage that it would be - then it's not really the sort of thing that
you intervene in," he said.

Mr Howard last December called on the three governments to abandon
plans for injecting rooms and sought legal advice on how the federal
Government could use a UN treaty to invoke its external powers to
scuttle the plans.

The Uniting Church will announce today that it has signed a lease on a
disused pinball parlour in Kings Cross to set up what will probably be
Australia's first injecting room.

The Kings Cross premises is likely to be operational by the middle of
the year, possibly pipping similar facilities already in the pipeline
in Canberra and Melbourne.

In the ACT, a 17-member committee has been appointed to investigate
ways and means of implementing safe injecting rooms legislation. Many
in government circles expect an injecting centre to be operational by
mid-year.

In Melbourne, the Wesley Mission has an inner-city injecting room
almost ready. The Bracks Government has asked a committee to report on
the issue by the end of March and it seems likely the Government will
then ask the mission to take on at least one of five proposed centres.

Mr Howard's comments were prompted by a UN control board report,
released on Wednesday night, that says explicit or tacit approval of
drug injection rooms is a step in the direction of drug legalisation.
"By permitting injection rooms, a government could be considered to be
in contravention of the international drug control conventions," it
says.