DRUG USE WILL NOW INCREASE

THE State Government has predictably decided to move ahead with the
softening of drug laws in WA. It was predictable for several reasons,
one of them being the close affinity the Labor Party has with small
lobby groups, especially those promoting soft drug laws and the
legalisation of cannabis.

Another reason was the farcical manner in which the Government set up
and then received the predictable recommendations from the Community
Drug Summit delegates. The Government appointed a committee to pick
delegates and it became very obvious that the summit delegates were
in harmony with the Government's widely known direction.

The Government, supported by an empathetic media, gave the 100 summit
delegates an omnipotent status while at the same time it ignored the
500 public submissions that were received.

The public submissions were not tainted by Government or media
influence and gave a different message to the State's law makers.
Only 10 per cent of the public submissions supported liberalisation
of drug laws and measures such as needle exchanges. More than 70 per
cent of the submissions rejected drug-liberalisation and
harm-reduction policies.

The Government has ignored this big number of submissions and will
proceed along the tried and proved path of failure, exposing our
youth and other vulnerable people to an explosion of available drugs,
especially cannabis. As a result, health, behaviour, public safety,
family pressures and youth suicide will be compromised for many years
to come.

If this Government was serious about halting the drug problem it
would have toughened drug laws and subsequent penalties, not done the
reverse.

The flaws in the Government's proposed legislation are many, but the
overriding issue is that the Government is not acting to reduce the
demand for drugs nor the consumption of drugs. It is, in fact, moving
towards an increase in consumption.

P. A. MONEY,
Geraldton.