WE'VE LOST DRUG WAR: COMRIE

Victoria's police commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie, has admitted the fight
against drugs has failed and is set to introduce a radical statewide plan
to keep drug users out of courts.

Mr Comrie said the usual hard-line police approach to drug users had not
worked and "we have got to look at new ways" to tackle the problem. These
included a coordinated national effort to curb trafficking in high-purity
heroin that was killing scores of people nationally each week.

He said it was "highly likely" he would soon order that people caught with
small amounts of marijuana be given a caution.

He also revealed he had an open mind about applying the plan to hard drugs,
including heroin.

Mr Comrie said his force's focus on illicit drug importers, manufacturers
and distributors rather than users was working, with a 30 per cent jump in
charges for these offences since the middle of last year.

"We are trying to target our resources into areas of most concern where
they will have the most impact," he said.

Mr Comrie said he had been encouraged by initial reports on a trial in
Broadmeadows where marijuana users caught for the first time were given a
warning. A decision on whether to introduce the plan statewide would
probably be made within two months.

"We will then start turning our minds to whether or not we ought to include
other drugs in that program," he said.

"My position on that is that I have a totally open mind on it. I don't
reject that as a possibility, but I would want to see some further evidence
about the management of this first trial before I commit myself to it."

The State Opposition and Professor David Penington, who headed the
Premier's drug inquiry, support a warning scheme for drug users, including
heroin users.

Mr Comrie said that under the discretionary powers available to him he did
not need State Government approval to introduce the plan, which would be a
first in Australia.

He revealed big changes were planned in the way police dealt with the drugs
problem, which he blamed for 70 per cent of all crime in Victoria and for
costing Australia $1.6 billion a year.

He said Australia's police commissioners had agreed on a strategy for
police forces and state and territory governments to work closely on a
"standardised approach" to reduce heroin importation and distribution.

Mr Comrie also:

Warned that the probability of death was "quite high" for people in
Melbourne using the current batch of very pure heroin that was being mixed
with dangerous cutting agents.

Called on the United Nations to throw greater resources into encouraging
peasants in Asia's Golden Triangle to grow crops other than opium, from
which heroin is produced.

Warned lawyers and accountants on the payroll of drug traffickers that they
were being targeted by police.

Urged professional bodies representing lawyers and accountants to take
action against their members who protected assets obtained by drug
trafficking.

Said he doubted whether federal agencies had sufficient resources to stop
the flood of illicit drugs.

Mr Comrie said there was no overnight cure to the drug problem, but he was
confident about the future because of the new ways it was being tackled
instead of the "single-agenda approach of hard-line law enforcement that
was really all that was open to us in the past".

He said long-term coordinated approaches were needed in law enforcement,
education and health to stop young people wanting to experiment with drugs.

Under the Broadmeadows trial, more than 90 people have received cautions
for possessing not more than 50 grams of marijuana.

People can receive a maximum of two cautions. They must not have been
convicted of drug offences before and must admit the offence and consent to
being cautioned.

Mr Comrie said it was better to divert users from the criminal justice
system into assessment and treatment programs to get them out of the drug
scene.

"That diversionary program has a great deal going for it," he said.