SOME POLITICIANS BEGIN TO LEARN A THING OR TWO

Politicians, at least some of them, got the message at the Drug Summit: Shut
up and listen, you might learn something.

This became clear on the final day, when the views of experts emerged in the
final communique and resolutions, and when politicians such as the
Treasurer, Mr Egan, and National Party MP Ms Jenny Gardiner admitted, with
regret, that the politicians had taken up too much of the debating time.

Mr Tony Trimingham, who lost his son to heroin and has played a leading role
in the push for drug law reform, declared the outcome "wonderful". He shook
hands with delegates and thanked politicians for listening.

Ms Clover Moore, who had moved the summit's two most controversial motions -
seeking medically supervised injecting rooms and heroin trials - said: "Many
members of Parliament and other delegates changed their minds after they
heard evidence from experts such as Professor David Penington, Dr Alex
Wodak, Justice James Wood and others. Many who would not have supported
medically supervised injecting rooms on Monday are now prepared to support
reform," she said.

The summit has brought more understanding of the problem to politicians and
the community. Professor Ian Webster, president of the Alcohol and Other
Drugs Council of Australia, said the fact that the words compassion and care
were included in the communique could be one of the summit's outstanding
achievements. It would have been most unlikely two years ago that the focus
would be on treatment and rehabilitation rather than punishment. The cynics
had been outnumbered by the optimism, enthusiasm and hard work of the
delegates.

The summit worked at two levels. It was a political struggle because the
Government is under pressure to liberalise drug laws on the grounds that the
present ones have failed, while many people remain horrified at the prospect
of injecting rooms. It is an intellectual struggle because no society has
found an answer. John Maynard Keynes was reported to have said, when accused
of changing his opinion: "When my information changes, I alter my
conclusions. What do you do, sir?"

Several politicians took the Keynesian approach this week, including the
Premier. They might also have taken on board something of the philosophy of
Carl Jung, who said: "Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the
narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism." Professor Penington tempered
idealism with pragmatism. Australia had worked through the AIDS problem
better than most nations, he said. "Why can't we do the same with illicit
drugs?"

Mr Carr said the Government would work at the recommendations. The test
would be: will they make the task of the affected families easier, not
harder? He was not flying the white flag of surrender over heroin: "I will
not accept the normalisation of heroin as part of our society. We cannot
remove the stigma because it is caused, not by its legal status, but by the
damage it does."

The Opposition Leader, Mrs Chikarovski, would not wave a white flag, either,
but urged a trebling of whatever funds are spent on the drugs fight.