NEW TACK IN WAR ON DRUGS

YOUTH festivals such as rock concerts, nightclubs and surfing carnivals
will be the targets of the State Government's newest crackdown on drugs.

The government will use 18 hand-picked recruits to spread the anti-drugs
message at venues attracting large youth crowds in potentially drug-rich
environments.

The strategic switch to an "on-the-ground" approach will add a vital extra
prong to the government's $100 million drugs program.

Until now it has been spearheaded by adults.

Health Minister Rob Knowles, himself a key figure in anti-drug
advertisements, will today unveil the "mod squads" of drug counsellors aged
between 16 and 22.

"Young people do not differentiate between alcohol usage and a range of
other drugs, and they see the concept of adults using alcohol while telling
them not to touch other drugs as hypocritical," Mr Knowles told the Herald
Sun yesterday.

"If they've got people their own age, normal young kids who have been
specially recruited and trained to provide information, they are much more
likely to be receptive."

The youths, recruited by the Centre for Adolescent Health and the
Australian Drug Foundation, have been trained to discuss the risks
associated with the use of alcohol, marijuana and other illegal substances.

They will also give guidance on the safest way to use drugs.

The strategy, to be launched today, will begin at the Homebake rock concert
at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday.

The youth drugs squad will have a booth operating at the concert, and will
be handing out postcards with telephone numbers for hotlines and other
referral centres.

Other youth festivals they will attend in the next four months include
Orientation Week at Melbourne University, the St Kilda street festival and
the Bells Beach Easter surf carnival.

The program has been launched over summer, when youths are on holidays and
most likely to come into contact with drugs at festivals.

The roving counsellors will be paid for their four months' work.

The $160,000 scheme, the first of its kind in Australia, was a key
recommendation of the Penington report.

Mr Knowles said it would run until April, with the possibility of it being
extended permanently depending on an independent review of its success.

"We will see how the program goes over summer, when most young people are
on holidays, and assess its effectiveness after that period," he said.