PROSECUTOR BACKS CORNER SHOP DOPE

QUALITY heroin should be supplied free to registered addicts and
governments could sell cannabis across the counter at corner
delicatessens, says another of the nation's public prosecutors to
break ranks on drug law reform.

South Australia's Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Rofe QC, said
yesterday governments were "scared of alienating electors" on the
drugs issue, and they needed to be pushed into experimenting with
sometimes provocative solutions.

Last February, NSW DPP Nick Cowdery QC, suggested licensing and taxing
heroin production and distribution, that the drug be available on
prescription, and that marijuana use be decriminalised.

Mr Rofe, in an attempt to open up the drugs debate, told a national
drugs strategy conference in Adelaide on Tuesday that governments
might have no alternative than to "enter the marketplace" supplying
cannabis and heroin.

"I don't have a real problem with somebody buying a packet of 20
joints for $10 at the corner deli," Mr Rofe said.

He told The Australian yesterday he would rather see cannabis sold at
the local shop, with the same restrictions that applied to cigarettes
and alcohol, than continuing to allow criminals to control the supply.

"The way it's sold at the moment is by criminals in the back streets,
public schools, back-alley stuff, exposing young people to a criminal
element that has control of other markets, such as heroin," he said.

"My preference is we don't have it (sold) at all. Those who want to
smoke it can grow two or three plants in their own backyard. The
reality is we're not getting to that stage."

Rather than allowing criminals to sell drugs that were either
contaminated or of unknown quality, a government-controlled supply
would mean authorities would know "what's being sold, what price it's
being sold at, who it's being sold to and what, in fact, is being sold".

Mr Rofe said he believed a strong argument existed for supplying
quality heroin free to registered addicts.

"What have we got to lose? I find it illogical to say, 'Yes, let's
have expanded needle exchange programs, safe injecting houses, and yet
we're not going to control what you're actually injecting in those
safe needles and safe places'," Mr Rofe said.

"But what we will do is put a qualified nurse standing by, in case
what you inject is bad."

South Australian Human Services Minister Dean Brown yesterday
distanced the Olsen Government from Mr Rofe's remarks.

Opposition spokesman on police issues, Patrick Conlon, a leading
left-wing player, yesterday upset Labor's conservative law and order
stance by supporting drug law reforms, including free heroin trials
and less policing of cannabis use.