STOP AND TAKE A NEW LOOK ANNIE

UNABASHED junkie Annie Madden indulges her addiction solely because it
gives pleasure.

The community, however, should not discriminate against her, and others
like her, because it is "fear of discrimination, stigma and judgment" that
stops such people going to the local needle exchange or getting medical
treatment because "we fear being labelled as drug seekers".

"Discriminat1on is killing us," she sniffled before delegates to the NSW
Drug Summit on Tuesday.

Ms Madden is wrong. In time she may be dead wrong because if she believes
her calculated statement, it has the potential to kill her. It's not
discrimination that's killing the drug addicts Of Sydney, it's the fact
they like to use drugs which have the capacity to be fatal.

They are also illegal and because of this they are often impure and their
potency is variable. In short, they are poisonous, particularly in the
quantities used by those who like them.

But the drugs themselves couldn't kill Ms Madden and her friends in the NSW
Drug Users and AIDS Association if they didn't use them. She, and her pals,
made that decision themselves. No one stuck a gun at their heads and told
them to stick a needle in their arms the first, second or even third time,
they decided, selfishly, to indulge their singular pleasure.

They knew the risks not only of an overdose, but also of the possibility of
infection and the overarching possibility of debilitating addiction. And
still, the needle was plunged into the arm.

That's the crux of the matter. The heart of the issue, which the harm
minimalisationists seeking the decriminalisation of illicit drug use, are
at such pains to avoid.

Annie Madden, clutching a tissue borrowed from independent MP Clover Moore,
was paraded as the respectable junkie - only her crowd doesn't like to
think of its members as junkies, it prefers the innocuous term, injecting
drug users; nothing pejorative, nothing to denote the fact that those so
described are deliberately engaging in dangerous and criminal activities.
Junkies are notorious for their refusal to face the truth.

If discrimination is responsible for killing these pathetically deluded
creatures why did a 40-year-old man die so shabbily last week in the dunny
of the ludicrously named Tolerance Room at the Wayside Chapel? There was no
discrimination there. Those behind the stunt were hoping that junkies would
roll up - so long as the cameras were rolling at the same time.

Ms Madden presented an exhaustive wish to the summit on behalf of her
taxpayer-funded organisation. Among other things, it wants drug users
(we'll call them junkies) to assist other junkies to form mutual support
networks, to counsel each other.

It also wants to build "positive relationships" between junkies and the
rest of the community. Given the aggro some in the community feel towards
those who light up a cigarette on the street these days, there may be some
in the neighbourhood reluctant to embrace the local smack freak. Publicly
funded counselling may help them overcome such politically incorrect
intolerance.

Pregnant junkies also need a greater level of assistance, as do those with
young children, and the free needle program (let's not pretend that it
operates is an exchange) needs to be expanded, with the supply of a greater
range and volume of equipment and to take into account cocaine use.

It goes on, but nowhere is there any indication that these junkies are
obliged to give anything back to the community that it wants to underwrite
the access to their addiction.

On the contrary, Ms Madden's organisation is there to help junkies pander
to their addiction, even publishing a handy guide on how long it may take
to rid their systems of drugs should they be subjected to a urine test.

As far as the junkies go, it's all a one-way street, and if you don't like
it, I guess you're one of those discriminating killers Ms Madden is so
concerned about.