NSW FAILS THE DRUG TEST

NSW, the State with the worst drug problem, is doing the least to combat
it, a damning new report has found.

The NSW Government does not know the extent of the problem, has no clear
strategy, and is cutting back on spending, says the report, which ranks the
State last in prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol problems.

NSW was one of only two governments to have cut back on per capita spending
and was now ranked in the bottom three for spending through health
department drugs strategy programs.

The Herald has obtained details of the report - Drugs, Money and
Government, by the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA),
representing non-government drug and alcohol agencies.

It surveyed 200 leading experts in the field and covered alcohol, tobacco,
inhalants and illicit drugs.

Heroin especially is ravaging many young lives in NSW and, as the Herald
reported recently, is fuelling a billion-dollar national crime wave.

The report, which is to be released on August 10, reveals that NSW has
fallen from a middle-ranking government to the lowest in the survey, which
measures performance in 10 areas, including:

* Provision of appropriate treatment services.

* Prevention and education.

* Strategy.

* Professional development.

* Giving priority to alcohol and drug issues.

* Identifying the extent of the drug problem.

The report also reveals that while NSW was one of only two governments to
cut spending on drug and alcohol programs for 1996-97, other governments
increased spending.

The survey dealt only with spending through health and drug authorities
aimed specifically at reducing drug problems and not spending on related
issues such as police, courts and hospital admissions.

The president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, Dr Alex Wodak,
said the findings were shameful. "The density of the illicit drug problem
in Sydney is far greater than in other cities and we undoubtedly have more
illicit drug-users in NSW than in any other State.

"We still have the epicentre of the HIV epidemic in NSW. We not only have a
responsibility to keep this under control through our programs with
injecting drug-users - we have a national responsibility and there are huge
social and economic consequences of failing to do so."

One of the authors of the report, Mr David Crosbie, chief executive officer
of the ADCA, said the report would show that NSW had performed extremely
poorly.

"There is a lot of frustration in NSW that the Government is not committed
to doing anything that is other than marginal," he said.

The ADCA president, Professor Ian Webster, said the report reflected the
concerns of people working in the field, many of whom felt under siege.

"There is a dichotomy between the demand for services and the aggressive
community backlash to treatment programs. People working in the methadone
programs feel their efforts are being vilified."

The head of the Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies in NSW, Mr Peter
Connie, said there was no underlying commitment to a clear spending
strategy in the State.

"We have a lot of people working very hard," he said. "The lack of
government support in this State is quite difficult to understand.

"If we had a person a day dying for any other health reason we would throw
whatever resources we had at the problem."

The NSW Department of Health declined to comment before the report's
publication.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski