REGION TRIALS NEW DRUG PLAN

First-time offenders caught with small amounts of illicit drugs could be
cautioned and counselled under a new program being trialled in the
Illawarra, NSW Health Minister Craig Knowles said yesterday.

Mr Knowles said the Illawarra was one of two places in the state which would
test the scheme, aimed at intervening before drug users became entangled in
the legal system. The pilot program would only be available to people who
have no prior convictions for drug offences, violence or sexual assault.

Under the scheme, police have the discretion to caution offenders and send
them to a compulsory assessment and treatment program.

"Young people get hooked quickly and they tend to start off with small
amounts," Mr Knowles said.

"The traditional solution is to take them down to the cop shop and put them
through the legal processes.

"But the result is, and we know this only too well from statistics, is that
is one way to get on the slippery slide of bigger addictions. By requiring
them to undergo treatment we remove them away from the slippery slide and
back into a mainstream lifestyle."

Mr Knowles announced the new program in Wollongong yesterday, as part of the
Government's $158 million response to the May Drug Summit.

"These are major and substantial efforts in the attack on drugs statewide,"
he said. "They are trials and we will scrap the trials if they are not
successful."

Speaking at the Drug, Alcohol and HIV/AIDS Service in Rawson St, Mr Knowles
said the Government would also fund mobile community outreach teams in
northern Illawarra and the Shoalhaven.

"There will be more intensive initial treatment and assessment of inmates
with drug problems by setting up treatment services in police cells at
Wollongong," he said.