DRUG OFFENDERS MAY BE FORCED INTO TREATMENT

The Federal Government is considering a plan under which people found
with illicit drugs would have to undertake compulsory treatment.

The Prime Minister, Mr Howard, will put a fresh drugs strategy to the
Premiers Conference on Friday which some sources say could add more
than $100 million to the $290 million already committed by the
Government over four years to the war on drugs.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, yesterday released a
Labor Party discussion paper calling for radical changes to
Australia's drugs campaign, leaving open the possibility of a heroin
trial and legalised shooting galleries, and supporting the trial of
"drug prisons".

Mr Beazley said he was releasing the Opposition paper "in a bipartisan
spirit".

"Nobody's got a monopoly of knowledge and rightness in this particular
area because it's a battle that involves the whole community," he said.

Under the Federal Government's proposal being formulated by a taskforce
of senior bureaucrats, the Government would offer the States support
for a "diversion scheme", under which police would be able to refer
small-time offenders directly to treatment programs.

Elements of the proposals are believed to have been drawn from a
Victorian scheme which has diverted first-time offenders for
counselling.

Releasing the ALP discussion paper yesterday, Mr Beazley advocated a
similar diversion strategy to the Victorian scheme, saying that
instead of jailing drug users, the Government should "try mechanisms
for getting them into decent rehab programs".

Mr Beazley said the national drugs effort was fragmented, and he
suggested an expert "of national prominence" be appointed to head a
national unit to co-ordinate the drugs battle.

The Labor discussion paper also warned that more Australians would die
as a result of the ready availability of heroin and other drugs: "It's
clear that our current policies are just not working well enough ...
no society should tolerate the waste of young lives that we see
today," the paper said.

It said the ALP was not convinced by current proposals for a heroin
trial but if, after further assessment, predominant police and other
expert opinion favoured a trial, Labor would not oppose a State or
Territory government undertaking a properly researched trial.

The paper said a more comprehensive approach was needed to tackle
illicit drugs on all fronts. Among its main points were:

Safe injection rooms, or shooting galleries, could be introduced
without Federal Government approval, but any proposed trial of such
rooms should comply with 'harm minimisation principles' and it would
be inappropriate to open facilities without clear protocols;

The Federal Government should support trials of various kinds of drug
prisons, or prison wings, in which inmates commit to treatment and
rehabilitation programs;

The National Crime Authority Act should be updated to allow the
authority to compel a person to answer incriminating questions,
provided the answer was not used in evidence against the person from
whom it was obtained; and

Consideration be given to schemes aimed at reducing the ability of
people to enrich themselves through unlawful activity, including the
seizure of assets before a person was charged with a criminal offence
and reducing the ability of defendants to divert confiscated assets by
claiming to use them to fund their criminal defence.