(Note: Main points of what Senator Stahmer said summarized. Direct speech
given in quotes. pd)

HEROIN FOR ADDICTS IN BERLIN TOO?

But Senator Stahmer rejects setting up Injection Rooms

BM Berlin - Berlin is looking forward to a change in drug policy: the
controlled distribution of heroin to hard core addicts is no longer taboo.
"I imagine Berlin will participate in a trial of such a model," Senator
Ingrid Stahmer, (Socialist Party) told the Morning Post.

This was her response to the offer made by the federal government Drug
Czar, Christa Nickels (Green). According to the offer states will be able
to set up controlled heroin distribution models. This was agreed to by the
Red-Green Coalition.

Senator Stahmer said she is prepared to wait until Frankfurt and Hamburg,
the cities with the greatest number of hard core addicts, have set up their
models. "Berlin should await the outcome of these experiments before it
decides," she said.

Some hundreds of the total 8,000 addicts in Berlin would be affected. She
rejected the setting up of sterile fixing rooms, however. "That would only
create new drug scenes, meeting places and invite increased criminal
activity," she said.

Berlin spends 17 million marks a year to fight the war on drugs and has had
satisfactory results from the 11 health clinics it has set up. These should
not become injection rooms "To help addicts we must provide them with work
and housing," she said.

She was pleased with the federal plan to draft legislation for the setting
up of drug clinics. "Then we shall have a clear legal basis for them," she
said.

As Christa Nickels explained, the new direction will serve to improve the
health of the addicts concerned and help reduce the criminality associated
with feeding the addiction. ......... Berliner Morgenpost 1998

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski