EMPTY WORDS NO USE

I couldn't agree more with the People Against Persecution of Addicts
(Fairfield Advance, June 1) who are calling for more money to be spent on
drug rellabilitation and treatment services.

During the Drug Summit held recently, I called on the Carr Government to
treble funding for drug rehabiliation in NSW - a move which the Government
rejected.

Time and time again, workers on the coalface have told of their distress at
having to turn away one in three drug addicts that come to them for help.

I would have thought that given the Government's stated commitment to
tackling the drugs problem in this State, it would be in total support of
tripling the amount of resources available to help the many users.

To talk about helping drug users and then not being prepared to put the
proper funding in place to operate programs amounts to nothing more than
empty rhetoric from the Carr Government.

Kerry Chikarovski, Leader of the Opposition.