MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Reuter) Australia's conservative government on Tuesday
gave in to mounting public protests and quashed a controversial proposal to
give addicts heroin only weeks after approving the plan.

Prime Minister John Howard, elected last year partly on a family morals
platform, said cabinet did not believe the benefits of the trial planned by
Canberra's municipal government outweighed the costs.

``It's not just a question of morality ... everybody is deeply worried about
the level of heroin addiction in Australia,'' he told reporters after the
cabinet decision.

The national government's support was vital to the limited trial because it
was to provide money and its permission was needed to import the drug, which
is illegal in Australia.

``The decision is very disappointing,'' said a spokesman for Canberra
government chief Kate Carnell.

National, state and territory health ministers three weeks ago gave the
goahead to the trial programme, under which Canberra's local government
would give heroin to 40 addicts.

Although Howard's health minister, Michael Wooldridge, voted for the trial at
the ministerial summit, Howard was away from work at the time, hospitalised
with pneumonia.

``I have had the parents of children who have died through drug overdoses
plead with me, plead with me, not to weaken the law ... not to experiment
with trials, not to do anything that could send an adverse signal,'' Howard
said.

``I am a human being, I am the prime minister and I am trying to bring the
best judgment that I can.''

The trial was aimed at studying the effectiveness of supplying safe heroin to
prevent overdoses, fight the spread of disease from shared needles, cut
drugrelated crime and improve the quality of life of addicts.

If successful, it could have led to an extensive A$10 million (US$7.4
million) twostate programme involving 1,000 addicts.

Some Australian media campaigned heavily against the trial, with one
newspaper condemning the health ministers who approved it as drug traffickers
in suits.

Opinion polls have shown public opposition to the trial at about 55
percent.

Carnell said in a statement Canberra would continue with alternative
treatment trials using other drugs, including methadone.