MAJORITY OF VICTORIANS SUPPORTS HEROIN TRIALS, POLL FINDS

The majority of Victorians support medically supervised heroin trials and
safe injecting houses for heroin addicts, an A.C.Nielsen AgePoll has found.

The poll, taken late last week, found that most Victorians and residents of
the ACT - where a proposed heroin trial was scuttled by the Federal
Government in 1997 - were in favor of the proposals. However, a narrow
majority of Australians were opposed. In other developments:

The Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, effectively ruled out a heroin trial yesterday
after the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, threatened to use federal laws to
scuttle the plan. In an apparent reference to Mr Howard's blanket
opposition, Mr Kennett said people who did not come to the drug debate with
an open mind did the community a disservice.

Mr Kennett refused to rule out the establishment of injecting rooms for
addicts, despite declaring on Tuesday that ``safe houses'', as currently
proposed, were ``not on''. ``Again, can I just say, I don't write it out.
I'm happy to look at it. I think we should look at everything.''

The federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, fully supported the Prime
Minister's stand on heroin trials, but said heroin ``is a scourge which we
have to do everything in our power to meet''.

The national AgePoll found that Australians were overwhelmingly unhappy with
the Howard Government's performance on the drugs crisis, despite Mr Howard
making it a priority and committing $270million in his ``Tough on Drugs''
strategy.

Sixty-three per cent of the 2063 people polled thought the Government was
doing a poor job; 23 per cent believed it was doing a good job.

Nationally, slightly more Australians oppose a heroin trial (48 per cent)
than support it (45 per cent). Similar numbers (49 per cent to 45 per cent)
reject safe injecting houses.

However, 53 per cent of those polled in Victoria supported a trial (second
only to the ACT on 55 per cent) and 52 per cent thought that injecting
houses should be tried.

The poll reveals Australians are sharply divided on the issue by age. Half
of those aged 18 to 39 supported a heroin trial, while only 36 per cent of
those aged 55 and over agreed with the idea. There were also marked
differences between the attitudes of city and country people. Most
Australians (71 per cent) did not wish to see heroin decriminalised. Young
people were more opposed to decriminalisation than older people, with 76 per
cent of those aged 18 to 24 opposed, compared with 70 per cent of people
aged 55 and over.

On heroin trials, Mr Kennett said Mr Howard's position ruled out the states
going ahead. He said while extra funding and education might discourage the
potential number of addicts, it would not get addicts off drugs.