DRUGS POLICY FOCUS SKEWED: SENATOR

The Federal Government's $200 million, four-year Tough on Drugs policy
concentrated too much on law enforcement, rather than health issues,
Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said yesterday.

"The spotlight is mounted on a police helicopter and the media glare is
focused on the drug pusher at least in the headlines," she told the first
International Conference on Drugs and Young People, in Melbourne.

In her speech to open the conference she said the Democrats supported harm
minimisation over zero tolerance. Drug abuse was a social and a health
problem ''that should be addressed primarily through medical and social
services, not through the law and justice systems''.

''Surely we need to examine alternative strategies including drug courts,
heroin trials and decriminalisation of marijuana. Australia could save at
least $100 million if treatment was provided as an alternative to
imprisonment for minor drug-related offences,'' she said.

''Last year, the Prime Minster scuttled a heroin trial in the ACT. This year
in the ACT, overdose deaths overtook road deaths.''

Senator Stott Despoja said that some young people ''enjoyed recreational
experiences on illegal drugs''. ''It is one of the reasons that people take
drugs, and why drugs are often celebrated in youth culture,'' she said.

''Subsequently, two separate discourses are taking place. At one extreme, we
have the well-reported exploits of rock stars such as Liam Gallagher and at
the other we have the Prime Minister's tough on drugs stance.

''Who of these two figures would most young people believe knows more about
drugs?''

Senator Stott Despoja congratulated the conference organisers on including a
substream of presentations by young people.

The organiser of the conference, Youth Drug Studies Centre director Geoff
Munro, said society would never get rid of drugs and should aim to reduce
drug-related harm instead.Also speaking at the conference was ACT Health
Minister Michael Moore, who outlined the ACT Government's plans to introduce
safe injecting clinics in Canberra to alleviate chronic health risks to
injecting drug users.

The three-day conference, Australia's first international conference on
drugs and young people, attracted 650 delegates from Australia, the United
States, New Zealand, England, Sweden, the Pacific islands, Asia and Africa

Checked-by: Don Beck