CHURCH LEADER BACKS HEROIN ROOMS, TRIAL

One of Australia's most senior church leaders, Reverend Gregor
Henderson, has voiced his support for safe-injecting rooms and a
properly conducted heroin trial.

The Uniting Church's national general secretary, Mr Henderson also has
called on the Federal Government to show leadership in the drug debate.

At a remembrance ceremony in Canberra for those who had lost their
lives to illicit drugs, he said, ' It is not right that people die
when new approaches and treatments are available but governments lack
the courage to permit them.'

Recognising one of the new approaches, a charge against a Kings Cross
clergyman over a heroin ' shooting gallery' was dropped yesterday by
NSW police.

Uniting Church pastor the Reverend Ray Richmond, 61, was summonsed
last August to appear in court charged with aiding and abetting the
self-administration of a prohibited drug, after allegedly helping two
men inject heroin at the Wayside Chapel in May.

The chapel's so-called tolerance room became Australia's first
church-run ' shooting gallery' when it opened amid controversy on May
3. It closed on May 13.

Mr Henderson said the Uniting Church in Canberra had recently adopted
a new drugs policy which supported a scientific heroin trial within a
framework of community education, law enforcement, and
rehabilitation.

He would look at adopting a national drugs policy for the Uniting
Church.

' It's time we stopped treating drug users as criminals and started
treating them with compassion as people who need help,' Mr Henderson
said. ''By our attitudes we are forcing them into the back alleys.'

' [Churches] probably haven't done enough in this area,
too.'

Church leaders had a powerful role to play in the drug debate because
they could challenge their generally conservative constituency to
think about the issues.

They also had some capacity to influence politicians.

' Federally they could give a bit more leadership,' he said. ''There
is no doubt about that.

' It would be excellent if the Federal Government [would at least]
support community organisations - like churches - and state
governments in trying new things to help drug users.'