RANDOM DRUGS TESTS: NILE

Random drug testing of suspected addicts would help fight the region's
drug problem, according to Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile.

Reverend Nile spent the weekend in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven
outlining his party's policies on law and order.

"I talked about what we would do to fight drug crimes," he
said.

Mr Nile said his party's drug testing policy was something that never
had been done in Australia.

"Once they're identified, the young addicts would go into a compulsory
rehabilitation program which would take them off the street for 12
months," he said.

"It's a better answer than saying a certain number of people overdose
a year, let's give them heroin."

Mr Nile was supportive of NSW Health Minister Dr Refshauge's calling a
halt to an official needle exchange program at Redfern.

The announcement was in response to a photo of a young boy injecting
himself with heroin, on the front page of a Sydney newspaper.

Mr Nile said he thought the whole program should be
scrapped.

"I think the whole thing has been a bit of a confidence trick by using
the HIV/AIDS scare," he said.

"There's about 10 million needles a year handed out in
NSW."

Mr Nile has condemned the whole harm minimisation approach which began
in 1985.

"The theory was that you help the drug addict to use the drug safely
and supply the needles," he said.

"I think that has led to the explosion in drug use."

Mr Nile said the policy had never been debated in Parliament.

"We never actually had a vote to bring it in," he said.

"Most of the quick solutions will lead to drug expansion, as has the
needle exchange program."