PENINGTON SLAMS PM OVER DRUGS REPORT

Australia's foremost drugs policy adviser, Dr David Penington, yesterday
suggested that the Prime Minister's office influenced an international drugs
body to produce a report attacking planned trials of supervised heroin
injecting rooms in Australia.

The International Narcotics Control Board has warned in its annual report
that if Australia proceeded with a trial of supervised injecting rooms, it
would be "aiding in the commission of crimes" and "facilitating illicit drug
trafficking".

The board's warnings follow similar criticisms made last December when Mr
John Howard released advice from the body's chairman, Mr Antonio Martins,
that the trials would be in breach of international drug conventions. The
body falls under the auspices of the United Nations.

Dr Penington, the chairman of the state drug policy expert committee, said
it appeared that the board's criticisms had been strongly influenced by Mr
Howard, but that he had no evidence to support his contention. Dr Penington
said the report's criticism of the drug rooms planned in Victoria, New South
Wales and the Australian Capital Territory were "remarkably consistent with
the views of the Prime Minister".

He said it was no coincidence that countries such as Germany and Portugal,
which had recently introduced far more liberal alternatives to tackling the
drug problem, had escaped criticism in the report.

Dr Penington criticised the board as a conservative mouthpiece of the US
State Department, well known for its strong stance against any
liberalisation of drug laws.

"What is extremely likely is that there has been discussions with the Prime
Minister's office to enable the INCB to make this strong statement which can
be used to bring pressure on the states here in Australia," Dr Penington
said.

"The views expressed in the report are those which are consistent with the
views held in the Prime Minister's office and it's no coincidence that they
heavily criticise Australia in the report," he said.

A spokesman for Mr Howard dismissed Dr Penington's claim. "Mr Howard's
objections to drug injecting rooms were well known and were independent of
any view expressed by the INCB," the spokesman said. "The Federal Government
remains totally opposed to the establishment of drug injecting rooms."

Dr Penington said he expected Mr Howard to use the report as another means
to undermine the establishment of the drug injecting rooms.

"Yet when it comes to mandatory sentencing, or labor laws ... the Prime
Minister claims that we should be able to make our own judgments. Well I
would have thought this was clearly a case where to combat the rising heroin
death rates we were free to make our own judgments."