DELLA BOSCA TELLS PM TO BUTT OUT OF HEROIN DEBATE

Prime Minister John Howard's intervention in New South Wales' decision to
trial a heroin injecting room was ill-informed, NSW Special Minister of
State John Della Bosca said today.

Howard has written 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.

He called for state and territory leaders to confer urgently after he
received a letter from the UN International Narcotics Control Board.

Della Bosca said Howard had known about the trial for six months.

"The trial is a uniquely Australian initiative - we want to see that this
one medically-supervised injecting centre is a gateway to treatment and
rehabilitation," he said in a statement.

"John Howard's intervention in the trial of a medically-supervised
injecting room (is) unwelcome and ill-informed.

"It is extraordinary that he has chosen now to speak out."

He said Howard should be defending the right of the Australian community to
respond to the drug problem as it saw fit.

"An international agency ... should not be dictating Australian policies,"
he said.