SMOKE SIGNAL IS WRONG: PM

A row has erupted between the Federal and State Governments over a
plan to decriminalise private marijuana use in Victoria.

The State Government's legislation would ensure that possession of
small amounts of marijuana was no longer a criminal offence.

The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, blasted the proposal as "an
incredibly confusing signal".

"I find it completely contradictory, even bizarre, that we are now
living in an age where it's almost become a criminal offence to smoke
a cigarette," Mr Howard said on radio.

"Yet we seem to be going in the opposite direction in relation to some
of these other things."

Mr Howard said the case against marijuana was much stronger now than
it was 20 years ago, when people assumed it was a harmless
recreational drug.

"The overwhelming evidence (is) that marijuana is not only very
harmful in itself but can produce a craving for hard drug use and
ultimately hard drug addiction," he said.

Mr Howard said the states were responsible for the issue but it was a
"mistaken belief" that liberalising every law improved human behavior.

The Premier, Mr Steve Bracks, accused Mr Howard of using "cheap,
political tricks" by singling out one component of the State
Government's drugs policy.

He said decriminalising marijuana was not a "high priority" and Mr
Howard should take into account Labor's entire drug prevention and
rehabilitation policy, which included providing more beds for drug
rehabilitation and increasing drug education funding.

"What I would say to the Prime Minister is, don't play politics with
it," he said.

Mr Howard also reaffirmed his opposition to heroin injecting rooms.