HEROIN: EX-JUDGE JOINS PUSH FOR REFORM

Drug courts and supervised injecting rooms for addicts should be set up
nationwide to combat the heroin scourge, a former chief justice of the High
Court, Sir Anthony Mason, said in Adelaide yesterday.

He said he favored drug courts because policies were failing to stem heroin
use and heroin-related crimes.

Sir Anthony's comments come as the Victorian Government wrestles with the
dilemma of the rising heroin-death toll.

The Opposition has called for safe heroin-injecting rooms and the Premier,
Mr Jeff Kennett, is expected to make a decision soon.

Australia's first drug court, which has the power to sentence young addicts
to compulsory rehabilitation instead of jail, was set up earlier this year
by the Carr Government in New South Wales.

Sir Anthony said: "I'm in favor of drug courts ... as most of the efforts we
have made in dealing with the drug problem have not been successful."

He had just finished speaking about the challenges facing the legal system
at a national judges' conference.

"I'm very much inclined to give new initiatives a try if there seems some
reasonable prospect that they may contribute to a better deal," he said. "My
attitude towards injecting rooms is somewhat similar."

He told the conference that the public's faith in the adversarial justice
system had waned because of the increasing costs, delays and complexity
associated with going to court. He said judges should be able to impose
fines and time-limits on long-winded lawyers who wasted court time with
delaying tactics and unnecessarily long oral arguments or cross-examination
of witnesses.

"We should expect the judge to exercise more control in the proceedings," he
said.

"He should move aside from the view we've hitherto held of being a neutral
umpire, of allowing the parties to run the proceedings."

Sir Anthony said television programs such as Judge Judy stimulated interest
in the legal system and TV producers should consider creating a domestic
equivalent.

He said reforms should include amending the Constitution to allow the
introduction of probationary judges to improve the quality of judicial
appointments; a national judges college to train and educate judges; greater
pre-trial disclosure of an accused's case in criminal cases to cut delays;
and civics courses in schools to explain the value and role of courts in a
democracy.