'LET ADDICTS' KIDS BE ADOPTED'

A MAJOR parliamentary inquiry has recommended young children be taken
away from drug-addicted parents permanently and adopted out.

It also advises that doctors and nurses be randomly drug
tested.

The Liberal-led House of Representatives committee handed down 31
recommendations today stemming from its seven-month inquiry into the
impact of drug use on families.

Their controversial plan - which also includes compulsory treatment
for teenage addicts, restrictions on methadone programs and
withdrawing funding from drug programs that promote harm minimisation
- - was today dismissed as "a disgrace" and "frightening" by some
anti-drug campaigners.

But Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop, who chaired the inquiry, said the
"powerful and strong" recommendations would benefit families of
addicts and would help win the war on drugs.

The committee has called for adoption to be the "default care option"
for children aged under five who come to the attention of child
protection agents through their parents' drug addiction.

Under the plan, the parents would have to make a case for keeping
their children, or they would be taken away.

Asked if the parents could get the child back if they became drug
free, Mrs Bishop said: "No, not after adoption".

She said the committee expected to face criticism for the report but
did not think their views were extreme.

Mrs Bishop said the children would benefit from being given "a real
chance at life", instead of living with parents who only wanted them
to claim welfare payments.

But the Labor members of the committee said such an approach could put
children at greater risk.

"Government committee members argue that addiction alone should
determine whether a child is separated from their parents rather than
the more robust test of the best interests and safety of the child,"
the three Labor MPs said.

The Labor members presented a dissenting report, saying a drug
addiction was a more complex issue than the report appeared to suggest.

Approaches that both minimise harm to the addict and their families,
and help the user to become drug-free were needed.

But Mrs Bishop said drug services which promoted harm minimisation
should be trying to get users off drugs, and would lose funding unless
that was their aim.

The committee has also recommended a review of needle exchange
programs, which would consider whether local communities wanted them.

It also wants the health minister to introduce random workplace
testing for anyone working in public hospitals "to improve safety for
patients and other staff".

Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform said the report flagrantly
disregarded existing evidence and research.

"This report ... is a road map to disaster which would bring untold
harm and misery on young people and the Australian community,"
president Brian McConnell said.

"It is a disgrace that a committee of our national parliament should
display the ignorance that it has done and close its mind to reason
and science."

Dr Alex Wodak, director of St Vincent's Hospital's Alcohol and Drug
Service in Sydney, said the report's contents were
"frightening".

"It's a disaster as public policy," he said.

He said the report's advocacy for drugs to be considered a moral issue
ignored evidence from the United States.

About one person in 100,000 contracted HIV in Australia each year,
compared to almost 15 in the United States, where a zero tolerance
stance meant needle exchange programs could not receive federal funding.

But, he said, parliament would dissolve within weeks when the election
was called, and the next government would not have to consider the
report.

"It's just political posturing," he said.