EXPERTS QUESTION DRUG POLICY RECOMMENDATION

A parliamentary inquiry has alarmed some experts within the drug
rehabilitation field. It has recommended that Australia change its national
drug treatment policy from harm minimisation to abstinence. It's a
fundamental policy shift which could have major implications for
Australia's 130,000 regular injecting drug users.

TONY JONES: A parliamentary inquiry has alarmed some experts within the
drug rehabilitation field.

It has recommended that Australia change its national drug treatment policy
from harm minimisation to abstinence.

It's a fundamental policy shift which could have major implications for
Australia's 130,000 regular injecting drug users.

John Stewart reports.

JOHN STEWART: The report of the Family and Community Affairs Committee
Inquiry reflects a push for Australia's national drug strategy to change
from harm minimisation to harm prevention.

It may not sound like a big change, but it could have far-reaching
implications.

KAY HULL, COMMITTEE CHAIR: We don't think that the word 'abstinence' is a
four-letter word.

We don't think it shouldn't be spoken.

We think there should be more people looking toward abstinence as a key
objective.

JOHN STEWART: The parliamentary committee was split on some key issues, but
its final report recommends a shift to abstinence-based programs - a
recommendation opposed by Labor committee members Julia Irwin and Graham
Edwards.

The underlying abstinence theory is that addicts should stop taking drugs
altogether, rather than managing their habits.

MICHAEL ROBINSON, DRUG FREE AUSTRALIA: The Australian public is saying, "We
don't want to be helping drug addicts use illegal drugs - we want to be
helping them get their life back together."

JOHN STEWART: The abstinence lobby wants methadone programs to no longer be
a lifelong crutch and greater emphasis placed on addiction-ending
treatments like naltrexone.

It's a direction which has alarmed some experts.

DR JOHN FITZGERALD, MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY: The changes that we probably
think are most dramatic would be the recommendation to change methadone to
being an abstinence-oriented program.

And this would take us back to pre-1985 kind of thinking, where we see, you
know, potentially very dramatic impact on the capacity of methadone program
to actually reduce harm in the community.

JOHN STEWART: Last year Dr John Fitzgerald, from Melbourne University, was
commissioned by the Australian National Council on Drugs to report on
Australian drug policy.

Now he's concerned that the recommendations from the parliamentary report
could shift Australia away from treating addiction as a health issue and
closer to the American model of zero tolerance.

DR JOHN FITZGERALD: They recommend strategies that are actually based on
abstinence, which we know in terms of the ANCD's own reports, that
strategies that are based on abstinence-oriented approaches have the least
amount of evidence for success.

JOHN STEWART: The committee was also critical of needle programs, despite
evidence they have helped stop the spread of hepatitis C and HIV-AIDS.

But committee chair and Federal National Party MP Kay Hull has reservations
about the increasing number of needle programs.

KAY HULL: The number of users were decreasing, but the number of exchanges
were increasing, you know, exponentially.

There seemed to be a huge increase in the number of exchanges and needles
and there does not appear to be an accountability process.

JOHN STEWART: The immediate impact of the federal report could be limited
because the States still have control of methadone and clean needle programs.

DR ALEX WODAK, ST VINCENTS HOSPITAL, DIRECTOR OF ALCOHOL & DRUG SERVICES:
In general, the States and Territories will continue to run methadone
programs and needle and syringe programs, because if they cut back the
methadone programs, they'd have a crime wave.

And they'll have to have bigger prisons and cop bigger prison bills.

JOHN STEWART: Dr Wodak claims the report is not based on scientific
research but conservative thinking.

DR ALEX WODAK: I think this report will become a collectors' item for
people to show their grandchildren that in 2003 there were still
politicians who believed you could ignore the law or supply and demand.

JOHN STEWART: That view is not shared by the abstinence lobby, determined
to change Australia's national drugs policy and launch a new war against drugs.

MICHAEL ROBINSON: Well I don't believe Australia has yet fought a war
against drugs.

You know, it's something where we've had a drugs policy, we've had a tough
on drugs policy, but that's been undermined at every turn at the
bureaucratic level with harm minimisation.

JOHN STEWART: The Australian National Council on Drugs, the PM's peak drugs
advisory body, is yet to respond to the report.

John Stewart, Lateline.