DRUG AID GROUP BACKS HOWARD

A self-help group for heroin addicts and their parents has defended the
Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, over his rejection of a free heroin trial.

Mr Howard yesterday denied he was imposing his moral code on the heroin
debate and said he had received support for his stance from a group led by
a woman whose daughter died from a drug overdose.

The woman, Ms Ann Bressington, is the chief executive officer of DrugBeat
of South Australia.

She said her group represented about 50 parents of addicts who had been
detoxified using the new drug Naltrexone, and who were opposed to making
heroin freely available.

She told The Age she was moved to write to Mr Howard after a South
Australian MP, Mr Martin Hamilton-Smith, had been quoted at the weekend
saying his state may need to flout federal law and establish a
heroin-manufacturing plant to support a heroin trial.

Mr Hamilton-Smith is head of a South Australian select committee
investigating the potential for a heroin trial in the state.

``That is the most irresponsible statement I have heard from a
politician,'' Ms Bressington said.