ANTI-DRUGS GROUP FORMS

A NEW voice entered the ACT drug policy debate last week with the formation
of a conservative lobby group, Make Illicit Drugs Socially Unacceptable
(MIDSU).

Legislative Assembly Speaker Greg Cornwell and a representative of Liberal
Senator Margaret Reid attended the inaugural meeting in the Assembly
functions room.

MIDSU convener Collis Parrett said the group was opposed to harm
minimisation measures such as the heroin trial (which he labelled a "drug
maintenance program"), shooting galleries and needle exchange facilities. It
also wanted to see methadone programs gradually phased out.

"The formation of the MIDSU or a similar group was inevitable because the
14-year-old, unchanged harm minimisation strategy has virtually collapsed,"
Mr Parrett said.

MIDSU would lobby governments to adopt a policy of encouraging total
abstinence, with an increased focus on law enforcement.

The group's emergence forms part of a growing backlash against the "harm
minimisation" movement, which seeks to mitigate the dangers of drug use
partly by providing safer conditions for addicts.

This includes programs advocated by Health Minister Michael Moore such as
controlled supply of heroin to addicts (the heroin trial) and safe injecting
rooms or "shooting galleries".

Mr Parrett, who worked in the addictive drugs area of the Commonwealth
Department of Health during the '80s, described last week's meeting as "very
successful".

He said experience with anti-smoking campaigns showed levels of drug use
could be reduced by warning people of the dangers and increasing public
restrictions.

Graphic advertising campaigns and the gradual marginalisation of smokers
through bans in public areas had dramatically reduced rates of dependency.

MIDSU also wanted to see more money spent on rehabilitation measures such as
the Salvation Army's Recovery program - that aimed to cure drug addiction
rather than control it.

"The greater act of compassion is to help make addicts drug free instead of
keeping them in a state of government-funded dependence."

Mr Moore said he welcomed public discussion of drug policy but reaffirmed
his commitment to harm minimisation strategies.

"Harm minimisation is about taking the blinkers off - it's about looking for
solutions when we know the current system is not working," Mr Moore said.

Checked-by: Don Beck