NO EASY SOLUTIONS TO HARD-DRUG ABUSE

I was hoping the winds of change in the Coalition might bring more
sense and compassion into its strategies on dealing with drugs and
take us away from the present auction on law and order.

If the quality of its potential ministers is measured by Andrew Fraser
(Herald, January 12), then heaven help us.

His four strategies for eliminating drugs from prisons are: sniffer
dogs, ending methadone maintenance, banning visits to drug users, and
forced Naltrexone treatment. Now he has come up with a real doozey -
all drug overdoses to be attended by police and for it to be mandatory
for medical staff to call police to every drug overdose they treat.

In our efforts to save lives, we have been trying to encourage police
to avoid drug overdose attendance so that friends of users can safely
call help when needed. If this policy comes in, deaths will increase.

I eagerly await Mr Fraser's next initiative - concentration camps for
drug users, perhaps.

TONY TRIMINGHAM,
WILLOUGHBY,
JANUARY 12

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[LETTER #2]

Clear evidence from the '70s, '80s and '90s shows time and time again
the "war on drugs" to be futile, whatever resources and brilliant
minds are applied to the problem.

Hepatitis C (HCV), a virus transmitted through blood-to-blood contact,
is transmitted at the rate of 11,000 new infections each year
Australia-wide. Ninety per cent of cases arise as a result of people
sharing drug-injecting equipment. HCV is one of the major harms that
must be reduced.

Hepatitis C: the Neglected Epidemic, the recent landmark bipartisan
report by the NSW Parliament's Standing Committee on Social Issues,
highlights the personal, social and economic costs of hepatitis C. It
emphasises the importance of supporting the principle of harm
minimisation to help control the transmission of HCV.

To say that harm minimisation strategies are "defeatist" indicates a
sad level of ignorance. It is exactly these strategies which have
made Australia a world leader in managing to contain the spread of
HIV. These strategies are starting to show an effectiveness in
slowing the spread of HCV without increasing illicit drug use.

We need a wide range of strategies to help defeat hepatitis C, and to
help defeat harmful illicit drug use. Let's stop emphasising the
things that don't work. Find the things that do work. And let's
approach the problem rationally, once more.

STUART LOVEDAY Executive officer Hepatitis C Council of NSW

DR PAUL O'BRIEN Northern Rivers division of GPs

DR GILLIAN DEAKIN Eastern Sydney division of GPs Sydney

JANUARY 12