PHONE CALL SET FATHER ON REFORM

It Was The Telephone Call That Every Parent Dreads.

The policeman told Tony Trimingham his 23-year-old son Damien had died from
a heroin overdose, alone in a disused hospital on the fringe of Sydney's
notorious King's Cross.

A security patrol guard had seen Damien slumped over and called an
ambulance, but it did not arrive in time to save him.

It was a pitiful end for a young man who had once been full of life and a
natural leader, albeit one with a larrikin streak. Damien had stood out at
school, a prefect and house captain and representing NSW at schoolboy rugby
union.

Like many parents in this situation, Mr Trimingham initially blamed
himself. Through his grief, he felt he could have done something to
prevent Damien from taking heroin.

But in the months following his son's death in 1997, Mr Trimingham's grief
was replaced by anger.

Damien had identification on him when he died, yet it had taken police
three days to notify him - and then by phone. A post-mortem had been
carried out and organs had been removed without the family's consent.

Mr Trimingham says the way Damien's body was treated was his first
indication of how society treated drug addicts and their families. He
believes the social stigma of drugs is one of the biggest barriers to
people seeking help.

"Drug users are treated as the modern-day lepers by the community and, by
association, their families are included in that," Mr Trimingham said.

The experience prompted Mr Trimingham to become a drug law reform advocate
and the founder of Family Drug Support, a group for families and friends of
people with drug problems. His approach has often been controversial - he
was behind the first heroin injecting rooms set up in Australia - but he
believes it is time to recognsise that the zero teolerance approach to drug
abuse has failed miserably.

"There is absolutely no evidence that a zero tolerance approach or any
approach that puts huge amounts of resources into supply reduction is
effective and in reality that is what we have had for the last 25 years,"
he said. "There is considerable evidence that treatment does work for
people and it is an antidote to death, disease and crime.

"There is research by the Rand organisation in America that shows $1 spent
on treatment saves up to $12 in law enforcement and prisons."

Mr Trimingham was the key speaker at a Mandurah conference to launch Drug
Action Week, which runs until Saturday. In WA, the week is coordinated by
the WA Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies and it aims to encourage
community debate on drugs.