Senior figures in the NSW Police Service have admitted (Herald, July
21) that intensive operations in Cabramatta targeting drug traffickers
cost millions of dollars, failed to reduce the number of heroin users
and simply redistributed the problems to new areas.

These police should be commended for their honesty and courage. It is
extremely unfortunate that the Police Commissioner in the past has
been ordered to refrain from commenting on drug policy.

Commentators often argue that governments should be run more like a
business. What private business would continue to allocate 85 percent
of its resources to an activity shown again and again to have failed?

After the State police commissioners' meeting which was held in
Melbourne in April, the Victorian Police Commissioner, Neil Comrie,
said at a press conference that "we have to almost wipe the slate
clean" and move from punishment to rehabilitation.

What more evidence do we need after the Fitzgerald and Wood royal
commissions that current policies lead inevitably to more deaths,
disease, crime and corruption? Doing more of the same will not improve
outcomes.

The first step to progress in our community's problem with illicit
drugs is to admit the futility of relying so heavily on law
enforcement.

Dr Alex Wodak,
President,
Australian Law Reform Foundation,
Darlinghurst.