SELL DRUGS AT THE DELI

SOUTH Australia's chief prosecutor says he has no objection to marijuana
being sold from the "corner deli" to combat illicit drugs.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Paul Rofe, QC, yesterday raised the
extraordinary prospect of governments joining the drug trade because they
may be left with no other choice.

He told the Australasian Conference on Drug Strategy in Adelaide that laws
had failed to reduce Australia's drug problems. More radical solutions,
including government-controlled supply of both marijuana and heroin, should
be considered, he said.

"There may be no alternative, in the long run, other than for the
government to enter the marketplace," Mr Rofe said.

"Certainly I think this can be done very quickly in terms of cannabis. I
don't have a real problem with somebody buying a packet of 20 joints for
$10 at the corner deli. What I am asking... is that you free up your minds."

Mr Rofe - who stressed that his views were personal and not recommendations
- - said government-controlled supply or sale of cannabis might prevent young
people turning to drug dealers.

"The real danger I see in cannabis is the exposure of young people to the
criminal element," he said.

"They (young people) have indicated their willingness to experiment. They
become vulnerable to the suggestion of other products (drugs)."

Mr Rofe said he had seen no medical or other evidence to suggest cannabis
and heroin were more harmful in controlled amounts than tobacco or alcohol.

"I am an addict of tobacco and I'm told there is substantial medical
evidence to prove this product is killing me," he said.

"Governments make hundreds of millions of billions of dollars from the sale
of tobacco products," he said.

"I ask myself why some of these governments set themselves so strongly
against the involvement in the supply and distribution of illegal drugs,
particularly cannabis. And I think you can stretch the argument to heroin.

"We are dealing with the legal drug situation - alcohol and tobacco - much
better than we are with the illicit."

Mr Rofe also flagged government supply of heroin to registered addicts as a
way to curb drug-related crime and prevent overdoses.

"What the illicit drugs have in common at the moment is that their supply
and distribution is controlled by the criminal element," he said.

"Criminals dictate the price and quality (and) we prosecute all too few
major criminals.

"Addicts may well be prepared to say, 'well, if I can get the heroin either
free or subsidised and at a known quantity, I'll do that'."

Government-controlled drug supply might also shut out the "Mr Bigs" of the
drug world who Australian police rarely were able to bring to justice.

"Criminals who control the illicit drug trade are far better resourced than
those who enforce it," Mr Rofe said.