CANBERRA, Aug 18 (Reuter) A controversial government plan to give heroin
to 40 Australian addicts still had a strong chance of being introduced
despite a growing public row, Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said on
Monday.

He said the fate of the heroin trial, which would allow the addicts to
receive the drug under medical supervision, would be decided at a cabinet
meeting on Tuesday.

But Wooldridge, who supported the proposal at a meeting of national and
state health ministers earlier this month, said growing community
opposition to the plan would make it more difficult to approve.

Under the Australian Capital Territory's plan, the trial would be used to
assess the effects of the drug on the addicts' health and their ability to
function in the community.

Approval of the second stage, involving 250 addicts, and the third
fullscale stage, involving 1,000 addicts in three cities, depends on the
outcome of the initial stage.

``The trial, as I said at the health ministers' meeting, has quite a few
hurdles to go,'' Wooldridge told reporters.

``I gave a prediction then that at best there was a 5050 chance of it
going (ahead) nothing has changed since then.''

Newspapers reported on Monday that cabinet was set to reject the plan,
which requires national governmentapproved law changes, after a poll
showed a majority of Australians opposed the trial.

The poll, published on Saturday in The Australian newspaper, showed that 55
percent of those surveyed opposed the plan. About 40 percent supported the
trial.

The trial is aimed at reducing the number of heroinrelated deaths and the
amount of heroinrelated crime.