CHIKA ADMITS DOPE JUST HAZY MEMORY

NSW Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski confessed yesterday to "a couple of
goes of marijuana" as a student but opposed decriminalisation, saying she
feared it would make the drug would only increase its popularity.

The Liberal leader's candid admission of toking marijuana is likely to cause
a stir among her conservative colleagues on the eve of Premier Bob Carr's
drugs summit.

"Do you want me to use the Clinton defence? Did I inhale?" Mrs Chikarovski
asked ABC radio.

"Look, let me say I had a couple of goes of marijuana when I was at uni and
enough to make me realise this was not the sort of thing I liked to do.

"What scares me, I suppose, worse than that is that I'm told the marijuana
that's available now is 30 times stronger than what was around when my
generation was using it.

"My view is we don't want to encourage people to use drugs, and I would have
thought making it legal in fact encourages more use."

Mrs Chikarovski's position is based on an anonymous tip-off that today's
cannabis is about 30 times stronger than when she used the drug.

However, a spokesman for the National Alcohol and Drugs Research Centre said
such information had not been collected.

"This is a person in power who is quoting information that is factually
incorrect," the spokesman said.

NSW Independent Richard Jones said yesterday he had been stoned in
parliament once and continued to use marijuana once a fortnight.

Mr Carr's spokesman said the Premier had not tried marijuana.

Next week's NSW drugs summit will hear police methods increase the risk of
hepatitis and AIDS among addicts and the wider community.

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics research uncovered a "disturbing" practice
among police of destroying syringes and spoons when dealing with heroin users.

A survey of users found police destroyed their equipment on more than 25 per
cent of occasions – forcing them to share needles and risk spreading
diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS.

Bureau director Don Weatherburn said yesterday the week-long summit,
starting on Monday, should consider making the self-administration of a drug
legal.

The Carr Government will be warned by the only overseas expert at the summit
that a hardline law enforcement approach to drugs has failed.

Peter Reuter, from the University of Maryland, told The Australian the zero
tolerance approach had proved expensive and divisive, and had little impact
on the price and availability of hard drugs in the US.