A DRUG-FREE SOCIETY IS NOT AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

ON OCTOBER 11, 2001, I said that taxpayers should not have to fund
supervised injecting places (CT, p.1).

The report from the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB),
published in February 2002, has restated its previous position that
such establishments condone illicit drug use and drug trafficking,
and calls on Australian states and territories to abide by the
obligations undertaken by Australia as a signatory to the relevant
international drug conventions.

It specifically calls on the Federal Government to ensure all states
and territories comply fully with the provisions of the treaties. In
"Aussie-talk", we should keep our word.

Some may think it's pie-in-the-sky to have an ideal to aim for a
drug-free society. But why?

No-one thinks the UN's Declaration on Human Rights is pie-in-the-sky.
Yet it aims similarly at an ideal, knowing it won't be easy to
realise, i.e., to bring human rights to all on the planet.

The UN doesn't resile from its ideal because its efforts are not
always 100 per cent effective. Breaches of human rights serve only to
make it try harder. I ask the ACT Chief Minister and the Assembly to
adopt a similar approach to our drug issue.

COL PARRETT

Convener,
Make Illicit Drugs Socially Unacceptable
Kingston