LEADING THE CHARGE ON DRUGS

The State Government today will receive a raft of recommendations - some
already voted on - for approaches to the State's illicit drug problem from
members of the NSW Drug Summit.

Among other things, it will be asked to extend drug education and prevention
programs, establish a Children's Drug Court and ensure health professionals
working in the area of drug addiction are properly trained.

These topics are hardly controversial and, for the most part, the community
will have no difficulty accepting them, Several of the reporting committees
have, however, brought forward recommendations which many people will not
find acceptable.

Among these are proposals for the repeal of laws relating to the
self-administration of prohibited drugs, the installation of safe injecting
rooms and the end of jail penalties for cannabis offences.

The proposals to repeal laws banning the use of prohibited drugs and the
possession of small amounts of heroin and cannabis did not find universal
support.

As the same topics also divide the broader community, the summit split on
these issues was not unexpected.

Unfortunately, many delegates had staked out their positions on these
questions well in advance of the conference. They ignored the available
evidence and brought little new to the debate.

The link between cannabis use and hard drug use is, to quote delegate
Professor Peter Reuter of the RAND Corporation, "overwhelming", yet he was
not asked to elaborate on his view.

Closer to home, the Federal Government's own Handbook for Physicians devotes
pages to the physical and neuropsychiatric risks associated with cannabis
use - but it would appear that pop psychology prevailed.

Emotion also dominated the discussion of heroin use. In these areas
particularly, the delegates seemed not to have listened to the people.

As the Swedish experience has shown, it is possible to develop effective
policies to counter the drug menace without legitimising drug use through
the endorsement of safe injection rooms or the decriminalisation of drugs.

The state must take the lead and concentrate its efforts on the prevention
of illicit drug use through more extensive education, treatment and
rehabilitation.

Above all, it must ensure that such an approach is adopted by all sectors of
government or it will fail to gain the community support critical to success.