...AND A USER WHO THINKS A TRIAL IS OUR BEST CHANCE

I had intended to out myself as an injecting heroin user today, in an
attempt to match the courage being shown by Premier Jeff Kennett and the
police chief commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie, in supporting a heroin trial in
Victoria.

But the personal cost to me and my family is still too high. I will save
``coming out'' for when the community learns the truth about heroin and its
use.

Any suggestion of reform or provision makes people think the drug is being
promoted. On the contrary, this is about regulation where there is none.

This Christmas I lost two dear friends - one in her early 20s, the other in
his mid-40s - from overdose. Both casualties of a war they didn't want to
fight. Overdoses are accidents in most cases, tragic accidents for which
only our prohibition policy is ultimately to blame.

It couldn't get much worse for the user. I don't want my young son, or your
children, to pay all their lives for making a choice like the one I made 25
years ago.

I grew up in Melbourne's affluent eastern suburbs and attended an exclusive
private school. I was academically bright, successful on the sporting field
and had a loving, caring family. So what went wrong, you might ask. Nothing
really.

During an age when all of us are self-determining, moving out of home,
asserting our independence, testing out the boundaries, breaking taboos, I
came into contact with the drug through friends and I liked it.

I soon found out the education my parents, media and school had given me
about drugs bore little resemblance to reality. It only served to make me
mistrust most of what I was told.

The best thing you can do for a user is to maintain them in a way that puts
them at least risk of harm and facilitates a person becoming drug free when
they are ready to do so. With illicit drugs seen as a health issue rather
than a legal one, users could focus on rebuilding their lives and creating
an environment that makes it easier to succeed at stopping once they are
ready.

I am not promoting heroin use, rather accepting the powerful attraction the
drug can have and accepting that legal deterrents will not prevent people
using.

We have made heroin sexy. Eventually the romance goes and you are in a
situation that can be very difficult to change. To be continually punished
or face the risk of disease or overdose is not the way to help people stop
using.