DOCTORS, USERS, UNITE FOR DRUG REFORM

SYDNEY: Fifteen groups, representing doctors, lawyers, drug users and their
families, have joined forces to lobby the NSW Government for drug reform.

The groups will make a joint submission to the NSW Drug Summit being held
in Parliament House this week, under the umbrella title of Communities for
Constructive Drug Action. The submission makes several recommendations
which it said could halve the number of drug-related deaths in five years.

The groups include the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the AIDS
Council of NSW, Hepatitis C Council of NSW, Parents and Citizens
Association, Family Drug Support, Redfern Legal Centre, NSW Council for
Civil Liberties, Wayside Chapel and the NSW Users and AIDS Association.

Craig Patterson, of the Royal College of Physicians, said all the groups
supported increased needle and syringe exchange programs and a trial of
safe injecting rooms.

Any strategy needed to look at treatment, at the availability of the means
of prevention, to support people who were using, to support current users
from discrimination. To achieve all of that, it needed to look at the
legislative and regulatory framework and adjust that so new approaches
could be found, Mr Patterson said.

He denied suggestions that the week-long summit would be a "talkfest" as
there would be too many people involved in the discussions who worked at
the coalface of the problem.

Mr Patterson was critical of there being only one drug user represented at
the summit.

The only known drug user who is speaking at the summit, Annie Madden, from
the NSW Users and AIDS Association, said she would have liked more users to
have been invited, as there would be a limit as to how much she would be
able to contribute, as one person.

Ms Madden said politicians needed to show courage when tackling the problem
of drug addiction, and not be swayed by bad headlines.

"I think that the community understands that existing strategies haven't
worked and that there's actually quite a lot of mileage to be gained for
politicians who do take some perceived risks and look at some new things
now, because I think that the community is really ready for it and it's the
politicians who are behind the eight-ball on this," she said.

The joint submission also called for the establishment of a
whole-of-government ministerial council on drugs, an advisory council on
drugs with community and expert input, and an improvement in surveillance
data.

But Premier Bob Carr, who will open the drug summit in Parliament House
today, warned yesterday that it would not produce a magic cure for the
heroin scourge.

He had realistic hopes rather than high expectations for the summit.

The five-day summit was born out of concern at a newspaper photograph of a
teenage boy shooting up heroin on a Sydney street before the March state
election. The issue rekindled the national debate on how the drug epidemic
should be handled, sparking renewed calls for a heroin trial and safe
injecting rooms.

In defiance of drugs laws, a church-backed injecting room was opened at
Sydney's Wayside Chapel, only to be temporarily closed late last week after
a police raid.

The summit delegates, led by former Victorian premier Joan Kirner and
National Party stalwart Ian Sinclair, will debate and vote on
recommendations coming from 11 working groups.