DRUG-WAR FIRST FOR ACT LIKELY

Canberra would become the first city in Australia to allow drug users to
inject themselves with heroin at medically supervised injecting clinics,
under radical new approaches being considered by the ACT Government.

The ACT Minister for Health, Independent MLA Michael Moore, said yesterday
that a report before the Government - Sexual Health and Blood-borne
Diseases - called for the creation of early intervantion centres and safe
injecting places.

The report, by Professor Peter Baume, of the University of NSW, has been
tabled in the Legislative Assembly and the Government was seriously
considering its recommendations against a rising tide of heroin overdoses
in Canberra.

[Peter Watney note: Professor Baume was a Liberal (right wing) Senator and
minister in the Commonwealth Parliament, and subsequently was Professor of
Community Medicine at University of NSW, and is currently Chancellor of the
Australian National University, Canberra]

The Australian Federal Police and ACT Ambulance Service appealed on Friday
for governments to come up with new ways of dealing with drug overdoses,
deaths and drug-related crime. They said that last month in Canberra
paramedics had attended 42 overdose incidents, five times the rate for
July, 1997.

There were 10 deaths last year from heroin overdoses.

Mr Moore said safe injecting places would give users the chance to manage
their lifestyles without dying in the process.

An early intervention centre would ensure trained medical staff were on
hand to alleviate the dangers of high-grade purity and overdoses.

Legislation to permit safe-injecting places would require majority support
in the Assembly and the cooperation of police, legal and health agencies.

If the places are introduced, Canberra's estimated population of about
4,000 heroin-users would be allowed to inject under medical supervision
without fear of arrest.

Heroin overdose victims can already seek urgent medical help from the
ambulance service without fear of arrest by police.

Mr Moore said many were desperate to leave the chaotic lifestyle, which
often forced them to resort to crime. They had few options under present laws.

"I am not in a position to establish it by myself; it is a matter for
government as a whole," he said.

But if the changes were adopted, the ACT would become the first
jurisdiction in Australia to provide safe injectin places.

The Assembly had backed a heroin trial in Canberra, but this had been
vetoed by the Federal Government, which instead began a new drive to combat
drug dealers and importers.

The ACT's Minister for Justice and Community Safety, Gary Humphries, said
on Friday that national efforts by police and customs agents detected less
than 10 per cent of heroin imported into Australia.

As little as 1 per cent of heroin coming into the ACT was detected by
police, he said.

A meeting of capital city lord mayors in Brisbane called recently for safe
injecting centres across Australia to deal with the tide of heroin deaths
and overdoses. Mr Moore said the zero-tolerance approach had failed, and
hundreds were dying in tragic circumstances across Australia.

Inkecting places would be illegal under present laws, so the Government had
to examine its options to find an effective way to introduce them.

* HYDEN WA: The West Australian Nationals [futher right than Liberals] have
called for free heroin to be given to registered addicts in a move to cut
the state's escalating crime rate.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan