DRUG SUMMIT SINKS INTO POLITICAL ROW

A FORMER heroin addict told the opening day of the NSW drug summit he
would have killed the people he loved most in order to feed his addiction.

Joe Latty's frank confession came as hopes for a an open-minded and
politically bipartisan approach to the week-long summit vanished with
a scathing attack from NSW Nationals leader George Souris on the Carr
Labor Government.

Mr Souris said Mr Carr was "soft on drugs" and accused the Government
of giving "tacit approval" to the illegal heroin shooting gallery
recently set up at the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross.

"There is no evidence the (Carr) Government has changed its attitude
towards a softer approach to drug abuse," he said.

"Our fear is that a government going soft on drugs can only lead to an
increase in drug use." Mr Carr later declined to comment on the remarks.

But it was Mr Latty's address to the summit's 215 delegates that
opened most eyes to the grim reality of drug addiction.

"I've had people in my life I would have died for . . . but if they
had stood between me and my drugs I would have killed them," said Mr
Latty, 43, now a successful and drug-free businessman. "I lived to use
(drugs) and I used to live . . . I wreaked havoc on anyone who came
near me, mostly the people I loved most."

Mr Latty, who began taking LSD at 13 and heroin at 16, was one of two
former addicts who spoke at the summit being chaired by former federal
National Party leader Ian Sinclair and former Victorian Labor premier
Joan Kirner.

The law enforcement perspective came from NSW Police Commissioner
Peter Ryan, who called for more rigorous regulation of the State's
methadone program.

He said methadone clinics had a "honeypot" effect on crime in many of
the communities where they were located. "Crime tends to increase,
drug dealers prey on addicts, businesses close down, there's a general
degradation of the social fabric in the area which begins to fall into
dereliction," Mr Ryan said.

Police needed more powers to seize the assets of drug dealers and
"ambiguities" surrounding the possession of trafficable quantities of
drugs had to be cleared up.

But the director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research,
Don Weatherburn, said tougher drug law enforcement increased the
amount of induced harm associated with heroin.

He said safe injecting rooms and removing criminal sanctions for
self-administration of heroin should be considered.

"If we significantly lower the cost of heroin use, we can lower the
amount of induced harm heroin brings," Mr Weatherburn said.

He also called on police to stop confiscating or destroying injection
equipment used by addicts for health and safety reasons.