GREEN LEE'S NEVER MET ICE USER

HER Greens party advocates decriminalisation of ice, but Lee Rhiannon
has never met a user of the deadly drug, dailytelegraph.com.au can reveal.

"I haven't met people who are on ice.," Ms Rhiannon told this website
in an interview you can hear by clicking on the audio link below right.

"I have heard anecdotal stories from health workers in the main and I
find that really disturbing."

Earlier in a blog run through dailytelegraph.com.au, Ms Rhiannon had
dodged a reader question about whether she had "ever seen personnally
what happens to people high on ice", only saying that she had "heard
many horrible stories".

Meanwhile, Peter Debnam was using his dailytelegraph.com.au blog to
reiterate that the Greens should resign over her party's policy
advocating the decrimininalisation of ice and other drugs.

"Any Member of Parliament who thinks we should de-criminalise drugs,
including 'Ice', should take a good hard look at themselves, do the
community a favour, and resign," the Liberal leader writes in his blog.

The blog battle was was triggered by the Greens effectively saying
that ice junkies should be free to buy as much of the deadly
substance as they want.

The party yesterday announced it wants to decriminalise all drugs.

In a bizarre defence of the move, the Greens claimed the benefits
outweighed the dangers of keeping the drug illegal.

And this morning Premier Morris Iemma said: "It is just an absurd,
ridiculous and disgusting policy."

Any MP who supported such a policy was "completely out of touch with reality".

Voters in a poll on this site agree. Seventy-two per cent of more
than 2500 voters say the policy would cause "social chaos".

The Greens came under fire in 2003 for their support of
decriminalising the personal use of drugs.

That was before the ice epidemic hit Sydney, bringing with it a new
level of drug-related crime and violence.

It has now emerged that the Greens - which thanks to Labor
preferences may hold the balance of power in the Upper House after
the election - believe even ice users should not be charged with a
criminal offence if caught in possession of the drug.

The policy, developed by 50 local Greens groups who then send
delegates to state council, comes despite acknowledgement of the
strong links between ice and crime.

"We acknowledge that - and the way to treat it is not locking people
up - it's about having the program to get them off it," Ms Rhiannon
said yesterday.

"We certainly acknowledge there's a crime link."

Asked whether it could restrict police in their duties by rendering
them unable to arrest potentially violent or criminal users, Greens
campaign co-ordinator Lesa de Leau said: "The benefits far outweigh that."

Mr Debnam said it was an outrage that a political party could support
the decriminalisation of a deadly drug - or that Labor could support
a party that did.

"This drug is death to young people and it is undermining a whole
generation," he said.

"Any elected representative who even suggests access to ice be made
easier should take a good hard look at themselves and do the
community a favour and resign."

Mr Debnam also condemned Labor for doing a preference swap with a
party that held such policies.

ALP secretary Mark Arbib said Labor did not endorse the Greens
policies but would go ahead with the preference swap nonetheless.

"There will be no watering down of the (Labor) party's tough drug
laws or positions on other social issues," he said.

The Greens also want to introduce gay awareness material into
classrooms down to preschool, calling for "the provision of factual
and affirming materials about sexual orientation, transgender and
intersex conditions at all levels of the education system".

Ms Rhiannon said children as young as four should be taught about gay
relationships.

"We support these programs and they would be age specific," she said.

"It's not anything about teaching them to be gay, it's just about how
the world is."

Companies would also be barred from promoting baby formula in health
clinics, maternity units would have to be "culturally sensitive" and
childhood learning would begin from birth as part of the party's
53-point policy plan.

The party also has a whole policy section headed: "Public education
must be free from political interference" but said it approved of
moves by teachers to inform students of the dangers of the
Government's workplace reforms.

"It's a law, they need to know what the the law is," she said.

"Clearly when WorkChoices is designed to strip down award conditions
you need to teach that."