GIVE USERS HEROIN: MARTIN

Registered heroin addicts should be able to get their hit through the
state health system, according to independent candidate for Keira Dave
Martin.

Such a scheme would "at least halve the spate of burglaries in a
fairly short space of time", he predicted.

Councillor Martin, a school principal and Wollongong City councillor,
said legal solutions to skyrocketing heroin abuse had failed.
Dispensing free or cheap heroin through hospitals might not reduce
addiction but would cut the associated crime rate.

"The war against heroin will be lost unless we break the link between
the addiction and crimes that addicts commit," he said.

"We also need to break the link between heroin and the criminals who
profit from it.

"Heroin is a medical and social problem but we're trying to solve it
with legal solutions which are failing miserably.

"Addicts are being driven by their addictions to crime to support a
habit costing on average $3000 per week."

Cr Martin said a November 1998 study by the NSW Bureau of Crime
Statistics showed 70 per cent of burglars were driven by drugs.

"Senior Victorian and Canberra police admit that even their successful
and well-publicised drug hauls intercept just a tiny fraction of the
drug reaching Australia," he said.

"Increased police and customs resources are important and the severest
penalties must continue to be imposed on those who peddle this 'white
death'".

"But even massive police resources will never stop heroin importation.
Those who oppose strictly supervised and controlled drug reform trials
need to offer a better solution to the current approach of burying our
heads in the sand, closing our eyes and hoping that one day our
failing approach will somehow magically begin to work."