Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jul 2000
Source: Queensland Sunday Mail (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 2000
Contact:  GPO Box 130 BRISBANE, QLD 4001
Fax: (07) 3666 6692
Website: http://www.thesundaymail.com.au/

TOP COP'S DRUG ANGER

RETIRING Police Commissioner Jim O'Sullivan has hit out at "soft"
options for tackling the drugs scourge killing our youth.

In a wide-ranging and exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail today,
he says he hopes Queensland never decriminalises drugs or allows
shooting galleries.

"Safe injecting rooms? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?" Mr
O'Sullivan asks.

"You're injecting your body with poison, for goodness sake."

Mr O'Sullivan, who will step down as the state's top policeman on
October 31, says meeting so many fine young people gives him optimism
for the future but he fears the destructive effects of the erosion of
family life.

"We are setting up enclaves of dysfunctional families," he says.

And he reveals his biggest disappointment -- being unable to do
anything to stop abortions. "I've done my best to get the law changed,
but I've failed."

Mr O'Sullivan believes the Fitzgerald inquiry into corruption ended
too soon.

It is his only regret about the inquiry, for which he was handpicked
to be chief investigator for commissioner Tony Fitzgerald in 1987.

The inquiry, which handed down its report on July 3, 1989, led to the
jailing of corrupt top-level police, including commissioner Terry
Lewis, and several politicians.

Mr O'Sullivan, who led the rebuilding of the police force after the
inquiry, says the service is "in the best shape it ever has been".
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