HEROIN TRIALS URGED

A JOINT group of State and federal politicians - and the nation's lord
mayors - have issued a united call for controlled heroin trials.

The group, which came together for the first time yesterday in Adelaide,
will compile a direct submission to the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, urging
him to relax his opposition to the trial.

The chairman of the Capital City Lord Mayors Conference, Brisbane Lord
Mayor Mr Jim Soorley, said drug law reform was long overdue in Australia's
cities.

"It's on the streets of the capital cities, where the crime, the violence,
the overdoses and the real victims are," he said.

Adelaide's Lord Mayor, Dr Jane Lomax Smith, said the group was working from
estimates that a heavy drug user needed $40,000 to $50,000 a year to
support the habit - generally funded by crime and prostitution.

But treatment for users, including prescription trials and alternative drug
strategies, would cost an estimated $3000 to $4000 a year.

"It really makes economic sense to provide alternate drugs," Dr Lomax Smith
said.

The mayors each agreed to seek improved access to rehabilitatlon in their
cities.

They will lobby Mr Howard directly in conjunction with their State and
Federal Government colleagues from the Australian Parliamentary Group for
Drug Law Reform. A spokesman for the parliamentary group, SA Democrats
Leader Mr Mike Elliott, said the principle of harm minimisation was driving
the proposed reforms. Hobart's Lord Mayor, Dr John Freeman, said Mr Howard
was "not well advised" when the Federal Government blocked proposed ACT
heroin trials last year.

"We believe the politicians are behind public opinion," he said.

Before announcing the campaign yesterday, the joint meeting was addressed
by health and drug experts and Assistant Commissioner Paul White of SA Police.

Dr Freeman said information from the session would go into a submission to
Mr Howard early next year.

Associate Professor Steve Allsop, director of the National Centre for
Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University, endorsed harm
minimisation programs such as the drug trials, counselling and needle
exchange facilties.

"What the community must realise is that none of these programs condones
such behavior as drug use," he said.

"Instead harm minimisation for drug users promotes many levels of
intervention - and can include abstinence."

Checked-by: Pat Dolan