Two letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, July 31, 1997:

MR TRICKETT in "Drug trial courts disaster" (CT,July 29,p.9) raises
three objections to the proposed heroin trial:
It will encourage former users to restart using;
It does not have elimination of illegal drugs as its objective;
Criteria for participation in the trial are too lax.
These and many other difficult issues surrounding the proposed trial
are canvassed candidly in the trial documents. Mr Trickett did not,
for example, mention that the surveys indicated that risks of relapse
by former users "are small and that the eligibility restrictions will
reduce them further."
The trial is cautiously and carefully crafted to involve two
preliminary pilot studies. Initially this will involve only 40 "ACT
resident volunteers who have either dropped out of ACT methadone
treatment or who are current ACT methadone clients".
Each subsequent stage of the trial will not go ahead unless the
previous one is a success.
These difficulties aside, there should be no illusion about the
fundamental position of Mr Trickett and his ilk. For them there is no
prospect of "success" if at the end of the day a heroin user is still
on heroin no matter how much that person's health is improved or how
stabilised his or her life has become.
We don't know but have good reason to suspect from Swiss and other
experience that heroin maintenance treatment will have these
beneficial effects for many for whom no existing treatment has worked.
That is why a trial is needed.
To support the trial is not to endorse heroin. I am among those who
share the attitude of J.J. Hart (letters CT 21 July, p. 8). We believe
that drugs are indeed bad, we do not want them for our children and we
do not want them seen as an acceptable way of life.
Above all, though, we want our children who happen to get hooked on
the plentiful supply of heroin that is around to be treated like human
beings. We do not want them treated as criminals and outcasts. We do
not want them to have to hit rock bottom (typically after about 7
years of that life if they live that long) before, in desperation,
they "come to their senses" and try and kick the habit with or without
methadone.
We do not regard it as a success of present policies that "only" about
510 died in Australia from heroin overdoses last year. The trial holds
out hope that this number can be greatly reduced. It also holds out
hope that we can get under strict control the supply of a drug that is
out of control in our society.

W.M. Bush
Turner
And the second letter:

Way open for more police corruption
BY REFUSING to wholeheartedly support the heroin trial proposed by the
ACT Government, Premier Carr is greatly lessening the prospect of the
NSW Police Force remaining relatively free of serious corruption after
the effects of the Woods Royal Commission have worn off.
Serious corruption developed in the NSW and other Australian police
forces when the state governments gave the police the power to
"enforce" laws preventing gambling in certain ways, having sex in
certain ways (ie, with prostitutes or homosexuals), using certain
types of drugs, or obtaining alcoholice drinks during certain hours.
The bans were doomed to fail and to corrupt the police because a large
number of otherwise lawabiding people always have been, and always
will be, prepared to go to great lengths to engage in those
recreational activities.
Their appetite for money, whether by obtaining it easily from both the
users and the (often criminal) "suppliers" of the banned recreational
activities, led to some police seeking more by the corrupt enforcement
of the laws relating to criminal activities and thus a widespread
culture of corruption arose in the tightly knit, closed, militarylike
policeforce environments.
All the bans on recreational activities except that on the use of
certain drugs have been removed. However, as a result of that ban
continuing, a tremendous amount of money is available to criminals for
the corruption of police officers and other officials.
Undoubtedly, before many years have passed, serious corruption will
reappear in the NSW Police Force, despite the efforts of the new
commissioner and his supporters, if the ban is not removed.
ALF RATTIGAN
Campbell

Alf Rattigan was one of Australia's greatest public servants. He
was in the senior ranks of the Australian Customs Service during the
early years of prohibition, then chairing the Australian Tariff Board
for 11 years, and finally the Australian Industries Commission for his
last 3 years before retiring in 1976. He is a walking encyclopaedia
of world trade, licit and illicit.