EXPERTS SHUT OUT OF SUMMIT

Some of the nation's most respected drug and legal experts, including the
NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Nicholas Cowdery, QC, and
University of NSW heroin specialist Dr David Dixon, have been excluded from
the Premier's Drug Summit.

A list of 80 non-parliamentary delegates has been drawn up by the Premier's
Department in preparation for the May 17 conference, but last night a
spokeswoman would not confirm names on the list.

However the list, obtained by the Herald, is more interesting for those it
excludes. For example, while the singer and anti-drugs activist Normie Rowe
has been invited, the commander of Police Internal Affairs, Mal Brammer - a
highly respected former Kings Cross patrol commander - has not.

There is only one representative from drug users' organisations, and no
representatives of prisoners. Said Dr Alex Wodak, president of the
Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation: "If this was a summit on Aboriginal
issues, it would be unthinkable to have one Aboriginal Australian and 169
non-Aboriginal, would it not?"

Also on the list is Mrs Angela Wood, president of Drugwatch Australia and
mother of ecstasy victim Anna Wood, but off the list is the State's leading
public prosecutor and advocate for drug law reform, Mr Cowdery.

Dr David Dixon, associate professor of law at the University of NSW and one
of Sydney's leading criminologists, is missing from the list, as is Dr Lisa
Maher, a senior lecturer in the school of medical education at University
of NSW.

Dr Maher, an ethnographer, has documented and researched the habits and
lives of the kids of Cabramatta and authored extensive research, including
the impact of drug laws on risk-taking behaviours among intravenous drug
users.

Dr Nick Crofts, head of epidemiology at the Macfarlane Burnett Centre for
Medical Research, has also been omitted. He is a world authority on
blood-borne viruses.

Another glaring omission, according to several academics interviewed by the
Herald, is a representative from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology
and Clinical Research. This organisation runs the largest surveillance of
injecting drug users in the country.

According to Dr Maher, the process surrounding the Summit is questionable.

"It appears many, many of those working in the field have not been
consulted. I know you cannot invite everybody but it might have been better
if there had been an open process of selection," she said.