HEROIN TRIALS INEVITABLE: WAYSIDE

A UNITING Church pastor says Australian governments will eventually allow a
prescription heroin trial because they will not be able to deny the success
of overseas studies. The ACT has revived its campaign by calling on Labor
States to support a national trial despite Prime Minister John Howard
opposing it.

The New South Wales government is continuing with its heroin injecting room
trial at Kings Cross but Premier Bob Carr has previously ruled out an
over-the-counter trial.

Ray Richmond, pastor of the Uniting Church's Wayside Chapel crisis centre
at Kings Cross, says politics would ultimately give way to commonsense and
international evidence.

Mr Richmond says a trial offers hope to hardcore users who need to break
not only their drug addiction but also their dependence on crime to fund it.