KENNETT ACTS ON DRUGS SCOURGE

Australia needed a new approach to deal with its drugs ``epidemic'', the
Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, said yesterday.

He signalled his intention to seek an urgent heads of government meeting to
consider a national heroin trial.

Mr Kennett, who plans to raise the drugs crisis at the next premiers'
conference in April, said he was trying to arrange a meeting for later next
week that might involve health ministers and federal colleagues.

He avoided criticising the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, who is opposed
to a heroin trial.

``I think we run the real risk of turning this into a personality contest
when it is a lot more important than that,'' Mr Kennett said.

``And I think you have to respect that people do hold legitimate and at
times very different views.''

The Prime Minister will have talks with the head of the FBI, Judge Louis
Freeh, in Melbourne on Friday.

Mr Howard, who is preparing arguments for why Australia should refrain from
heroin trials, is impressed with the US ``zero tolerance'' law-enforcement
policies and believes Judge Freeh can prove that the approach has reduced
heroin trafficking and consumption.

Mr Kennett said Mr Howard's motives for meeting Judge Freeh should not be
questioned.

``The more and better educated people are, I think, the greater the
opportunity of actually doing something constructive,'' he said.

Mr Howard has called for Australian politicians to put aside their party
allegiances and state differences to join him in his ``get tough'' war on
drugs.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that he would be happy to cooperate with
any state leader, regardless of whether they were from the Labor Party or
the coalition, Tony Wright reports from Wellington.

``This is something that ought to be above and beyond party politics,'' Mr
Howard told journalists in New Zealand, where he has spent the past three
days.

In Melbourne, Mr Kennett said that while some leaders, including the New
South Wales Premier, Mr Bob Carr, might be unable to attend a meeting on
drugs next week, it was important to start the process of a coordinated
approach.

Some of his Liberal colleagues were opposed to the trial because they
believed it would be seen as condoning drug use, he said.

But he would continue to try to convince Mr Howard and other colleagues of
the need for a medically controlled heroin trial in Canberra, Melbourne and
Sydney ``through the weight of debate and solid argument''.

Mr Kennett said he did not want the debate to become an issue of ``them
against us'' because there were legitimate concerns about experimenting
with drug trials - ``but my worry is that without trying, we may never know''.

Mr Howard said: ``It's something that ought to be, as far as possible,
separate from the heat and hurly-burly of election campaigns because it is
something that we need to work together very closely on, and that is the
aim I have.

``I'll sit down as readily with Mr Bob Carr as I will with Mr Kennett and
(the Western Australian Premier) Mr Court to try to work to solve this
problem.''

Mr Howard confirmed that he would meet Judge Freeh in Melbourne on Friday
to discuss the tough US anti-drugs strategies.

He made clear he was impressed by the ``zero tolerance'' policy of New
York, where police are not permitted to ignore any criminal behavior,
however minor.

Mr Howard has won strong support during his trans-Tasman visit from the New
Zealand Prime Minister, Mrs Jenny Shipley, for his ``get tough on drugs''
stance, which includes rejection of free heroin trials.