A BETTER WAY TO FIGHT DRUGS

The new police approach to first-time drug users deserves to be supported.

THE Victoria Police are to be encouraged in their painful search for more
constructive ways to deal with first-time hard drug offenders.

Their stance should be a model for others around Australia seeking more
appropriate measures to tackle the drug scourge, including the Prime
Minister, Mr John Howard, who has displayed an unfortunate tendency towards
inflexibility in this area of public policy.

The enlightened approach in Victoria was in evidence again this week in the
decision to extend the reach of a pilot project in which novice drug users
caught in possession of small quantities of heroin or other dangerous
narcotics are given the option of accepting treatment and counselling, as
an alternative to being thrown straight into the criminal justice system.

The trial began in and around Broadmeadows three months ago. Rather than
charging first-time users with criminal offences, police are being
instructed to issue a formal caution, provided the offender is prepared to
be referred to professional therapies, such as those offered by the Youth
Substance Abuse Service. It is made clear to the offender that what is
being offered is their one and only chance.

If, subsequently, they are arrested by police in possession of drugs, they
will be prosecuted.

The police command has now decided, without fanfare, to expand this project
to include J district, which takes in suburbs such as Werribee, Sunshine,
Footscray, Williamstown and Altona. And by May next year, the project could
be adopted throughout the state.

This is encouraging, and not only because one of the saddest ironies to
emerge from the early application of the new approach is that police have
struggled to find eligible candidates in the Broadmeadows area. Too many of
the drug users they come across are repeat offenders, with previous
convictions. It is self-evident that traditional law-enforcement methods
are doing little to address the problem.

Treating first-time offenders as people needing help, rather than as
criminals requiring punishment, offers fresh hope.

What must be understood, and welcomed, is that this limited trial does not
constitute the decriminalisation of hard drugs such as heroin.

Nor does it in any way represent society sending out a signal that the use
of such drugs should or will be condoned.

What it does offer, however, is an opportunity for at least some young
people to escape the vicious sub-culture of drugs and crime.

It is an approach that puts greater emphasis on helping to stop naive
flirtations with dangerous drugs before they spiral disastrously into the
all-too-familiar patterns of addiction, criminal behavior and a decline in
physical and psychological health.

At a time when heroin ``starter kits'' are available at low cost on the
streets of many Melbourne suburbs, and when surveys indicate that
increasing numbers of young people are experimenting with heroin as their
first illicit drug, it is crucial that society responds realistically and
creatively. Early intervention to discourage people from developing
long-term drug-taking habits makes more sense than hunting them down as
criminals.

The police trial should be supported, and it should be extended further.