Pubdate: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia Website: http://www.theage.com.au/ Author: Mark Mountford Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1155/a02.html MESSAGES MATTER. LET'S GET IT RIGHT You are right about heroin, Dr Napthine, messages do matter. Governments occupy too symbolically central a place in Australian society to pretend otherwise. But the meanings of messages can be elusive. When the previous premier was spruiking the virtues of Crown Casino, was that the right message on gambling? When he was emasculating the auditor-general, was that the right message on democracy? The various readings of messages do matter, just maybe, as experts argue, it is the rejection of authority implicit in heroin's initial use that helps lend it its transient and often tragic attraction. And just maybe a trial of sterile government-supervised injecting rooms would not be read as promoting drug use by present and potential users out in the folkways. Maybe even the opposite. We can be sure of one thing: the weight of decades of failed prohibitionist drug policies will at some point force a future Liberal Party to fully, creatively and courageously tackle the heroin issue. Until then, many of us will continue to weep silent tears of frustration and rage over a political party whose concern over messages is so selective. MARK MOUNTFORD, South Yarra - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck