PROHIBITION WILL NOT STOP DRUG USE, CONFERENCE TOLD

ACT Health Minister Michael Moore continued yesterday his attack on the
Prime Minister's decision to appoint the Salvation Army's Brian Watters to
head the Australian National Council on Drugs, declaring that Mr Watters'
prohibitionist stance was 'putting our children at risk'.

He called on Prime Minister John Howard to remove Mr Watters and to base
future decisions on drug issues on evidence rather than secret reports from
the head of his department, Max Moore-Wilton.

The council to be headed by Mr Watters will oversee the Federal
Government's $187 million Tough on Drugs campaign.

Mr Moore said he had no problem with Mr Watters in his role with the
Salvation Army, but when he was appointed to a national strategic body he
had to be more open-minded.

When he saw such a person criticising the methadone program, he could not
allow the matter to pass.

Speaking at the conclusion of an Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation
conference in Canberra, Mr Moore said the foundation and The Families and
Friends for Drug Law Reform would be targeting marginal seats at the next
federal election, not to unseat sitting Members but in a bid to educate the
electorate that drug prohibition did not work and only created corruption
and death.

A member of The Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform, Bronwyn Barnard,
said the present approach was to 'discriminate against and marginalise
young people to the point of death' but still there was no intervention.

Ms Barnard, whose brother Dean Forster died from heroin-related causes at
the age of 28, asked how the Federal Government could continue to enforce a
policy which was so destructive.

'They will never, ever, ever stop the availability of this drug,' she said.
But the only option provided was to 'chase them [drug users] around and
lock them up'.

All that the thousands of families affected by drug addiction were being
offered was 'fear and persecution'.

The foundation issued a 10-point plan for effective drug laws.

It prefaced its plan with the observation: 'Prohibition has not worked.

'It causes increased corruption, crime, disease and death.

'We aim to take the profit out of the illicit drug industry and effectively
confront Australia's illicit drug problem.'

The foundation said drug use should be treated as a health and social
issue, rather than a law-enforcement problem, and that law enforcement,
education and treatment should be funded equally.

Criminal sanctions for personal drug use should be removed, and the
production and sale of cannabis should be regulated and taxed.

Drug treatment and needle exchange programs should be expanded to meet
demand and establish safe injecting facilities.

A wide range of drug treatment options, including the medical prescription
of heroin, should be trialled and rigorously evaluated, the foundation
said.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)