BANNING DRUG USERS NOT THE ANSWER

BANNING drug users and dealers from Melbourne's western suburbs would
generate a "seagull effect" as the problem would move elsewhere, says
prominent outreach worker Les Twentyman. Using court orders to stop
people from entering certain suburbs if they are caught using or
dealing drugs also would isolate them from services set up to help
them, Mr Twentyman said. His comments follow a report in today's
Herald Sun newspaper, which says Victoria Police is set to launch
Project Reduction which will encompass nine drugs-plagued suburbs and
impact on non-residents only. "About four or five years ago in
(Sydney's) Cabramatta they had a similar plan where young people were
banned from coming into the CBD ... for up to 28 days," Mr Twentyman
told the Nine Network today. "The effect was that young people
couldn't access the services, particularly Centrelink which meant if
they didn't put in their dole form they were cut off ... it put them
back into drug and gang activity." Mr Twentyman said his Open Family
organisation offered a service in the city's west which saw a doctor
provide aid to 50 drug-addicted young people every week, while needle
exchange programs also operated in the affected area. "I can
understand the frustration of police.

I live out there and it is so sad to see how big the problem is," Mr
Twentyman said. "(But) it will become a seagull effect, going from
one area to the next. "What do you do then, ban it from that area?"
Mr Twentyman said it was the high youth unemployment rate, at above
50 per cent in Melbourne's west, that was the real cause of drug use.
"I don't know of one young person who likes being addicted or
dependant on drugs. " ... they haven't got a job, and therefore they
don't think they've got an identity." Project Reduction, which begins
on Saturday, will cover nine suburbs in the city's west: Footscray,
West Footscray, Braybrook, Yarraville, Maidstone, Tottenham, Seddon,
Kingsville and Maribyrnong.