PM'S DRUGS LEAFLET INACCURATE, SAYS MOORE

ACT Health Minister Michael Moore called on Prime Minister John Howard
yesterday to withdraw his Tough on Drugs leaflet because it contained
a number of inaccuracies.

Mr Moore said, "The problems with the leaflet start with a help-line
phone number which goes to a small printing business in Canberra
instead of the alcohol and drug service.

"It's a silly error but it highlights the lack of care that's gone
into this pamphlet."

Mr Moore also accused Mr Howard of misrepresenting a World Health
Organisation report on the Swiss heroin trial to justify his own
opposition to a heroin trial in Australia.

The leaflet was circulated at last week's meeting of police and health
ministers.

A spokesman for Mr Howard said the leaflet had been distributed
narrowly and the help-line phone number had been corrected in the
final version for public distribution.

The spokesman said, "The brochure is a clear statement of the Federal
Government's drug strategy.

"It reflects the outcomes of the recent Premiers' Conference at which
the National Drug Strategy was agreed to by all state and territory
governments."

But Mr Moore said the brochure departed from the National Drug
Strategy because it did not mention harm minimisation - the key plank
of the strategy.

Mr Howard's $515 million Tough on Drugs spending was allocated to
areas according to his own priorities, Mr Moore said.

"The seizure of 565kg of heroin in 1998-99 is used to justify an
extraordinary expenditure ($66 million) on customs and coastal
surveillance when the seizures had no impact on the street price of
heroin."

The pamphlet said the World Health Organisation's evaluation of the
Swiss heroin trial had confirmed the Federal Government's doubts about
the value of such a trial and provided no reason for the Government to
change its opposition to a heroin trial.

Directing resources to treatment and rehabilitation would save far
more lives than a heroin trial.

Mr Moore said this misrepresented the report, which found that a
heroin treatment program was medically feasible in controlled
conditions and decreased social harm, criminality, and illicit heroin
use.

He said, "The heroin trial is still the only policy we have to
undermine the black market.

"The pamphlet is an appalling piece of propaganda which the Prime
Minister should be ashamed of."

This sort of propaganda undermined Mr Howard's commitment of $77
million for a national drug treatment network and $44 million for
education, Mr Moore said.

"If we are going to deal successfully with illicit drugs we have to be
able to work together. It is not helpful when the Prime Minister
bypasses his own National Council on Drugs to release this type of
pamphlet."