UNPRAGMATIC DRUG LAWS

Regarding to the recent jailing of Luke Masters. Luke's crime was to
enter the chamber of the NT Legislative Assembly holding a banner
calling for drug law reform. He was in the chamber for less than ten
seconds and now he's serving 15 days.

Luke was just one of a group of people who felt that the NT
Government's "drug house" legislation would be a retro-grade step.

Most of the group have seen the impact of the so called "war on drugs"
on the day to day lives of drug users.

It seems that their stance has been vindicated by the recent Federal
Government report on Hepatitis C.

This report found the Federal and State/Territory Governments have
increased the rate of Hepatitis C infections among injecting drug
users, because of zero tolerance.

Hepatitis C is now an epidemic in Australia and this report estimated
that 500,000 Australians would be Hep C positive by 2020.

The report also found that prisons play a substantial role in the
spread of Hep C.

Hepatitis C and other blood borne viruses are just one area of harm
that many Australian's are exposed to because of a head in the sand
approach to drug issues.

Sooner or later, governments will need to realise that a pragmatic,
realistic approach to drugs is the only way to reduce the harm
associated with substance use.

Gary Meyerhoff

Network Against Prohibition