ON A COSTLY QUEST FOR DRUG SOLUTIONS

I have no wish to belittle the achievements of Last week's Drug
Summit, but are we on a quest for short-term politically correct
palliatives or long-term fundamental solutions?

Does it make any difference whether drug dependants kill themselves
with a lead bullet (or dirty needle) in a back alley or a silver
bullet (or clean needle) in a supervised injecting toom?

Will medical overseers help to avert, or merely postpone, tragedy?
Will they be able to control the origin, quality or quantity of the
drugs injected or will their attempts only drive users to a place
where there is no interference or supervision?

Will safe injecting rooms - which the trade must welcome - make life
on our streets or in our homes any safer for those who will continue
to be mugged, molested or murdered for the money to feed this habit?

Will homeless and unemployed users interstate move in to take
advantage of our more lenient and benevolent regime? At the end of the
day, if the only plus is a few less discarded needles in parks or back
alley is this not too high a price to pay?

It is a tragedy for all caught up in this terrible, destructive trade,
but let's not kid ourselves that death in a chapel or a sanitised
shooting gallery is any less final or more dignified or acceptable
than in a Kings Cross or Cabramatta gutter. We are only pulling the
curtain around the patient's bed.

Can we say after last week's summit that Sydney or NSW will be a
safer, more civilised, more enlightened society than before? Or are we
just pulling on a new style of blinkers?

Please consider.

R C. Hutchcon,
Edgecliff
May 22