ZERO TOLERANCE: HOWARD DECLARES WAR ON DRUGS

JOHN HOWARD yesterday vowed to make fighting the "menace of drugs" a main
priority in his Government's second term, with "zero tolerance" of drugs in
schools.

Reinforcing a stronger second-term focus on social issues, the Prime
Minister said he was personally determined to combat the "human misery
which is visited upon young lives by the abuse of drugs."

But the Prime Minister's key advisory body on drugs has demanded a greater
focus on rehabilitating drug users rather than conventional punishments.

Drug abuse was "a tremendous challenge and threat to our very being as a
society," Mr Howard said while announcing federal funding for a western
Sydney youth refuge.

"With the resources of the Government behind me I intend that during our
second term one of the non-economic issues that we will do our level best
to tackle is the drug menace." The sharper focus on drugs promises to be
the most prominent social issue for the Government since the 1996 guns
crackdown.

Opening Dunlea, a converted convent in Merrylands which is part of the
Youth Off the Streets strategy, Mr Howard repeated his post-election vow to
broaden his vision.

"I didn't only have in mind things like Aboriginal reconciliation,
important though that is. "I also had very much in mind a broader social
agenda that recognised that one of the responsibilities of the national
government as well as a responsibility of state and local governments was
to play its part in association with community organisations in tackling
the great social problems of our age."

The Australian National Council on Drugs yesterday urged governments to
boost treatment and rehabilitation funding and alternative punishments for
offenders.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson