FIGHTING THE DRUGS SCOURGE

The Lord Mayor's renewed call for a heroin trial should be heeded.

THE Lord Mayor, Cr Ivan Deveson, has placed back on the agenda the scourge
of hard drugs in our society in yet another bid to find answers to this
most serious of problems.

We congratulate him and the Melbourne City Council for their initiative
because this is a problem that will simply not go away by ignoring it. The
depth of the crisis becomes clear when it is considered that the number of
deaths from overdoses is almost as great as the number of alcohol-related
deaths on our roads.

As a society, we have achieved commendable success in reducing the road
toll through a concerted attack on a highly visible problem.

Drug abuse, of course, is different.

By its nature, the hard-drug problem, and specifically the heroin problem,
is clandestine, the carnage occurring in the main in back alleys and hidden
corners of our city.

This is why people such as Cr Deveson and tbe city councillors deserve our
support when they continue to bring the problem to the forefront of public
debate. Just as we have tackled the road toll with creative solutions and
community backing, so too must we confront the hard-drug problem.
Importantly, we must take the approach that heroin addiction is primarily a
health-care issue, not a law-enforcement issue.

For now, Cr Deveson has given up on the idea of legalised heroin "shooting
galleries", conceding that the community is not yet ready for them. He is
probably right, but we should keep the proposal in mind. The evidence from
Switzerland, where 18 such centres have opened, is that the introduction of
shooting galleries has stemmed the number of deaths due to overdose.

There are other potential benefits: injecting rooms also appear to have
helped curb the incidence of HIV.

Although backing off on the shooting galleries proposal the council has
revived the call for a heroin trial in the Australian Capital Territory.
The proposal, raised last year by the ACT's Chief Minister, Ms Kate
Carneil, involved 40 registered addicts being supplied with
pharmaceutical-grade quantities of the prohibited drug. Unfortunately, the
trial was scuttled by the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard. The Federal
Government subsequently announced an $87.5 million strategy against drugs,
split between enforcement and treatment.

Although the extra funding, particularly for treatment, was welcome, the
strategy offered virtually nothing new or creative in the fight against
drugs - the kind of breakthrough that could result from the proposed ACT
heroin trial.

The Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, has expressed support for the general concept
of a trial; indeed, he believes it should not be limited to Canberra and
says he is prepared to "try anything" in the fight against drugs. There are
strong arguments in favor of the trial: it would ensure that participating
addicts ate not forced into crime to support their habit; that they are not
caught up in the illicit drug scene; and that they are given access to
counselling, treatment and rehabilitation. Cr Deveson notes that the state
has an impressive list of rehabilitation facilities but that there is
evidence of the need for more funding.

The state should be ready to provide the extra money.

The time for relying on old methods in this fight has passed.

Our political and community leaders need to show brave, imaginative
leadership. Those that do will earn the community's respect.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski