NCA TO TARGET HEROIN TRAIL AS EDUCATION CAMPAIGN FOCUSES ON RISK GROUPS

The Federal Government has launched the second phase of its war on drugs
with a pledge by the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, to spend another $100
million on new law enforcement measures and addiction treatment services.

The spending includes $11.8 million on three new Australian Federal Police
undercover "strike forces" - one of them to be based in Melbourne - and a
$21 million National Crime Authority taskforce to tackle the heroin trail
from South East Asia.

It also dedicates $20.8 million towards upgrading and expanding
non-government drug treatment services.

Mr Howard announced the spending, most of it to be made over four years, at
a Uniting Church service in Brisbane yesterday. He appealed for bipartisan
political support for the second phase of his Tough on Drugs strategy.

But the Federal Opposition attacked the Government for promoting the law
enforcement spending as "new", saying it did not replace the spending cuts
imposed on the AFP and NCA in the last two Budgets.

Other anti-drug initiatives announced yesterday include:

Assistance to the anti-drug law enforcement efforts of neighboring
countries and new AFP liaison posts in the East Asian region ($11.5
million).

A $17.2 million community-wide education and information campaign aimed at
raising awareness of addiction prevention treatment and rehabilitation.
This will include targeting of "at-risk" groups.

Eleven more analysts for the Australian Customs Service ($4.4 million).

The Prime Minister also used the church service to name the Salvation
Army's Major Brian Watters as chairman of the Australian National Council
on Drugs - a new organisation to ensure that non-government organisations
working in the drugs area influence government responses to the heroin
problem. The deputy chairman is the AFP's commissioner, Mr Mick Palmer.

Mr Howard said no prime minister could "declare that the drug problem is
over and behind us".

"But I think something that this Prime Minister can say (is) that there is
a sincere commitment (by) my party," Mr Howard said.

"This is not an issue that should become tied up in party politics. This is
an issue that transcends the difference between Liberal and Labor. It is an
issue that transcends the difference between Commonwealth and state."

Government sources said much of the $20.8 million to be spent on
non-government treatment services would go to the larger established
organisations - for example the Salvation Army, the Ted Noffs Foundation
and Lifeline centres.

The drug strategy follows Mr Howard's veto of the proposed ACT heroin trial
last year, which proposed the trial supply of heroin to registered addicts.

A spokesman for the shadow attorney-general, Senator Nick Bolkus, said AFP
funding was still $6.2 million down on its 1996 level, despite the new
allocation.