COAST SHARES $4M IN DRUG DETOX WAR

The Illawarra will share $4.1million in funding for drug detoxification and
rehabilitation centres announced by NSW Premier Bob Carr yesterday.

Illawarra Area Health Service chief executive officer Ian Southwell
welcomed the news cautiously, declining to comment until more details were
revealed.

The funding for the Illawarra, Central Coast and Western Sydney is part of
Labor's $21.3million drug treatment plan over the next four years.

Mr Carr also announced another 200 police to fight drug-related crime in
NSW at a cost of $15million.

The Premier said his Government would increase the Crime Agencies Command
by 150 detectives to 750, and there would be an extra 50 intelligence
police officers for local area commands.

The NSW Police Association said the numbers fell short of the 2500 extra
police it believed was necessary to fight NSW crime.

Warilla detective and association executive member Phil Dunn said 50
intelligence officers would help smaller local area commands in places such
as Bega, but would do little to boost the numbers of frontline police.

``Intelligence officers gather statistics and analyse, and do profiles on
offenders and recidivists (habitual offenders),'' he said.

``They generate work from an intelligence point of view which is good but
the whole point is that we need more frontline police.''

Mr Carr's announcement takes Labor's promise of additional police to 600 in
the election campaign so far. He said he would announce another boost to
police before the March 27 poll.

The Premier also opened Corella Lodge, a 20-bed detox centre to service
Cabramatta, in Sydney's south-west, one of the city's biggest drug problem
areas.

At the opening, he dodged a protest organised by independent candidate for
the Labor-held seat of Cabramatta, Markus Lambert.

Protester Janina Anstee, whose two sons have had heroin addictions, said
the centre was too little too late, and it did not offer rehabilitation.

``We have had to wait 10 years for one lousy detox centre in the vicinity
of Cabramatta,'' Ms Anstee said.

But Mr Carr said the 20 beds would give more than 1200 people a year the
chance to make a clean start.

The Government's Fighting Drugs plan includes $2.4million over four years
for community action teams to help with the social problems resulting from
drug abuse.

Mr Carr also visited Mulawa women's prison where a new 30-bed centre has
been built to assess prisoners' needs for drug treatment as soon as they
began their jail term.

Corrective Services Minister Bob Debus said 90 per cent of female inmates
were in prison because of drugs or alcohol and an overwhelming number had
suffered abuse as children or in their homes as adults.