STONE HITS DRUG BLUES

Richards Bad Role Model, Short On Facts, Say Agencies

ROLLING Stones guitarist Keith Richards has enraged anti-drug and welfare
agencies by claiming that he has no problems with drugs - only drug dealers.

Richards, in Sydney as part of the band's Forty Licks would tour reportedly
said: "If you didn't have to go down to the bloody gutter to get it, and
meet people who live there, it wouldn't be so bad.

"It's only when it's associated with criminals, and turns anybody that
tries a little pill or a smoke into a criminal, that I have a problem."

But Richards, a former heroin addict who once boasted that things that
would kill other people had not killed him, has failed to impress the
agencies, which claim that he is a bad role model and short on medical facts.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre spokesman Paul Dillion said
Richards was sending out the wrong message by saying that he had been
there, done it all and survived..

"When you are a multi-millionaire and you've got gorgeeous women hanging
off each arm, you send a very powerful message," Mr Dillion said.

But people who were in a position of privilege and notoriety had to be
careful about what they said, particuarly if they were influential among
young people.

WA Drug and Alcohol Office director Associate Professor Steve Allsop said
he liked the Rolling Stones' music but not Richards' message.

He said Richards' comments on the criminal aspects of illicit drug use were
only part of the story and ignored the medical and social impact that drugs
could have on a user. "Yes, there are legal consequences for taking
illicit drugs but there are also health, including mental health, and
social consequences as well," he said.

He added that legal substances, including alchohol and tobacco, also could
be harmful.

The Salvation Army said Richards' comments were "very unhelpful" in the war
on drugs and invited the 59-year-old rocker to visit a drug rehabilitation
centre to speak to addicts whose lives had been devastated by drugs.

The Rolling Stones are in Sydney on their first Australian tour since 1995.

Their first concert was at Sydney's 2000-seat Enmore Theatre on Tuesday night.

Led by an apparently super fit Mick Jagger, they thrilled the mainly
over-40s crowd with renditions of their classic hits Satisfaction, Midnight
Rambler, Tumbling Dice and Honky Tonk Woman.

They will perform again in Sydney tonight and on Saturday at the big-venue
SuperDome.

Tickets for the Sydney concerts ranged from $60 to $349.95 and sold out in
under 30 minutes.

The ageing rockers then head to Melborurne for concerts on February 24 and
27 and March 1 and Brisbane for concerts on March 4 and 5.