DRUG EDUCATION, NOT SHOOTING GALLERIES!

RICHARD SCOTTE (Letters, August 24) seems to have a bleak view of what the
future holds for young people in this city: a descent through alcohol,
crime and other vices to an inevitable dependence on heroin. So, he
advises, let's just wash our hands of the problem, supply them with the
means for 'safe'' hard drug use and let them get on with it!

Well, it's true that the taxpayers of Canberra already supply heroin users
with free needles and syringes nearly half a million of them last year
alone so one can see why government-run shooting galleries and free heroin
would, according to Mr Scotte's reasoning, simply be the logical next steps.

Responsible Canberra citizens will reject such a negative view.

Sorry, Mr Scotte, your 'legal supply of drugs'' is not the way to go.
Providing 'a legal place to inject heroin'' brings to mind the old analogy
of stationing yet another ambulance at the foot of the cliff when the real
answer is to ensure that people don't fall or jump off the cliff in the
first place.

How can this be done? The key to the heroin problem surely lies in health
and lifestyle education. In Canberra this is primarily the responsibility
of the ACT Government.

Instead of looking to spend yet more public money on shooting galleries and
free heroin, Health Minister Michael Moore and his colleague, the Minister
for Education, should take a long, hard look at why their drug-education
policies for young people are so disastrously failing.

PETER TRICKETT
Fraser