$100M TO BEAT BACK ASIAN DRUG SYNDICATES

SOUTH-East Asian drug syndicates will be targeted in a $100 million plan
announced by the Prime Minister yesterday, signalling the second phase of a
national drug crackdown.

The National Crime Authority will get an extra $21 million over four years
to step up its fight against the region's organised crime, and federal
police will be posted to trouble spots as part of a combined effort to
extend the anti-drug campaign beyond Australian shores.

At a church ceremony to comfort people affected by drug abuse, John Howard
told the gathering in Brisbane the Government's package was part of a
"sincere and practical" commitment which transcended party politics.

"I don't think it would ever be possible for any prime minister of
Australia to declare the drug problem is over and behind us," he said.
"This is not an issue which should become fired up in party politics."

Mr Howard also announced that Salvation Army Major Brian Watters would
chair the new Australian National Council on Drugs.

The high-level advisory body will give non-government organisations the
power to influence government policy on legal and illicit drugs, including
on funding allocation.

The announcement, the second stage of the National Illicit Drug Strategy,
follows an $87 million anti-drug package last November. A key part of the
plan is the $21 million boost to the NCA's Operation Blade, aimed at the
South-East Asian heroin trade. The AFP will also for the first time place
intelligence officers in the region.

AFP Commissioner Mick Palmer, to be the ANCD's deputy chair, welcomed the
moves.

"Through our overseas network we can take the fight against illicit drugs
off-shore to try and prevent large-scale importations reaching our
streets," he said.

In other allocations, non-government organisations will get $21 million to
expand treatment services and $17 million will go to community education.

The AFP will get $12 million to establish "strike-force teams" in Perth,
Brisbane and Melbourne, with $5.6 million to assist neighbouring countries
in their anti-drug efforts.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley accused the Government of replacing funds it
had previously cut from law enforcement areas.

"One of the areas where they cut too far was the federal police, the
customs service and federal enforcement and drug programs in this country
and all John Howard did today was put it back," Mr Beazley said.

The Australian Federal Police Association also accused the Government of
playing "catch-up" with international crime-fighting organisations and
adopting an "ad hoc" approach to funding crime-fighting.

The group Family and Friends of Drug Law Reform said Mr Howard had shown
"tunnel vision" by treating drugs as an issue of law and order, rather than
a health problem.