SHAKE-UP URGED IN YOUTH DRUG POLICIES

ZERO tolerance is not the answer to Australia's drug problem,
according to experts at an international drug conference.

Telling young people to say no to drugs was not working, the First
International Conference on Drugs and Young People was told yesterday.

Zero tolerance - heavy policing of the streets and strict law
enforcement -would only move the drug problem to another area.

"We have so spectacularly lost the war on drugs that we need a new
approach," said Associate Professor Michael Carr-Gregg, Centre for
Adolescent Health spokesman.

"Zero tolerance has not worked. It's a head-in-the-sand attitude which
will just move the problem from one place to another."

"It's not going to solve the problem."

Professor Carr-Gregg's comments were echoed by other speakers at the
Melbourne conference, which opened yesterday with almost 700 delegates.

"We should understand that the zero tolerance, the just-say-no
approach, simply will not work," said ACT health and community care
minister Michael Moore.

Australian Democrats deputy leader Natasha Stott Despoja said her
party subscribed to the harm minimisation approach - reducing the harm
when people do take drugs.

"We believe that drug use and abuse is a social and a health problem
and not necessarily a criminal issue," she said. "We can help young
people to avoid drug abuse but criminalising young people in our
society is not the way."

Senator Stott Despoja also condemned "commonwealth versus state
buck-passing" - such as on the issue of heroin trials - that she said
hindered moves to more progressive approaches to drugs.

New Zealand youth early intervention worker Robyn Dixon, who delivered
a paper yesterday, said zero tolerance did not work.

"Knowing that something is against the law doesn't stop people doing
it," she said.

Professor Carr-Gregg said the drug problem for young people needed to
be tackled with a three-pronged approach from schools, parents and the
community.

"The biggest problem is that mums and dads are wagging their fingers
in their sons' and daughters' faces and saying 'don't do drugs'," he
said.

"That doesn't give (their children) the skills, the knowledge and the
strategies they need to handle exposure.

"They are saying, well the school will deal with it ... that's not
good enough. That's not sufficient."

He said parents should educate themselves about drugs with brochures
from the Australian Drug Foundation.

Youth Drug Studies Centre director Geoff Munro said the best solution
was for various sectors including education, drug treatment, law
enforcement and drug policy, to work together to address drug-related
problems.

Mr Munro said organisers were confident the conclusions of the
conference would have an influence on governments to make drug
policies more progressive.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry