UN BACKS PM'S HEROIN STANCE

Prime Minister John Howard's stance against heroin shooting galleries
has been backed by UN experts.

The International Narcotics Control Board warned governments yesterday
that they risk breaking international law by approving drug injection
centres.

The board said such drug injection rooms "facilitated" drug
trafficking and represented the first step towards legalising
narcotics altogether.

"By permitting injection rooms, a government could be considered to be
in contravention of the international drug control conventions," the
Vienna-based board said.

Late last year, Mr Howard wrote to NSW Premier Bob Carr demanding the
state's safe injecting room be put on hold because of possible
breaches of Australia's international obligations.

A spokesman for Mr Howard said the Federal Government's view had not
changed.

"Mr Howard's objections to drug injection rooms are well known and
quite independent of the views expressed by the United Nation's
International Narcotics Control Board," the spokesman said.

The board noted that drug conventions were created decades ago
precisely to eliminate the injection rooms of their time: opium dens.

The board is a 13-member, quasi-judicial organisation, which oversees
implementation of UN drug treaties.

In its annual report, board members also called for greater access by
poorer nations to pain killers, which are often too expensive to buy
in countries struggling with more basic medical problems, such as
malnutrition.