NEW WEAPON IN DRUGS FIGHT

The one indisputable fact about the illegal drug problem is that the
tried and not-so-true methods of tackling it are not working. For
that reason it would be foolish of the Queensland Government to turn
its back on any innovation that might give us another weapon in the
fight against a scourge that is destroying thousands of lives.

To date, the best single chemical weapon is methadone, which replaces
heroin with a controllable and legally available synthetic opiate.

The methadone programme must be continued but the fact that it, too,
is brutally addictive is reason enough to continue the search for
other therapies or treatments. One that offers promise the
controversial drug Naltrexone, the trial of which seems likely to be
part of the Queensland Government's seven-point strategy to deal with
youth, drugs and crime.

Naltrexone is used in Israel's Ultra Rapid Opiate Detoxification
programme. In which addicts are placed, under deep sedation for 24
hours and then detoxified. The programme has divided the medical
community, but the previous government last year approved a trial
involving 25 heroin addicts and 25 methadone addicts.

That trial was thrown into doubt when Labor Health Minister Wendy
Edmond expressed concerns, that the $285,000 allocated was
insufficient and that patients who suffered complications during the
treatment could sue doctors. Ms Edmond's original caution may well
have been justified but, hopefully, when Premier Peter Beattie's
promised "fine tuning" is completed, the trial can go ahead and be
evaluated free of any taint of political differences.

The Naltrexone trial had dominated debate, but the Government's
package offers a wide-ranging, multi-pronged assault on the problem.

It endeavours to tackle the underlying causes, as well as the
immediate issues on the ground in some of our infamously deprived and
troubled suburbs.

Worrying is the claim by Tourism Minister and Member for Bundamba Bob
Gibbs that Sydney-based drug dealers are doing business in Ipswich,
suggesting, if nothing else, that suppliers will follow demand across
any boundary.

It also gives added urgency to the Government's moves for a national
summit on drugs, although Opposition spokeswoman Fiona Simpson's fears
of an unproductive "talkfest" should be noted.

And, given the relative impotence of NSW police in the face of a
blatant drug industry in Cabramatta, Sydney. It demonstrates that
Queensland would be optimistic to believe that it could eradicate the
problem simply through tough and simplistic 'enforcement policies.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry