Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  GPO Box 3771, Sydney NSW 2001
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Author: Mark Metherell In Canberra

HOWARD PRAISE FOR SWEDEN'S DRUG-BUSTERS UNDER A CLOUD

Sweden's tough stance on drugs - hailed by the Prime Minister - is failing, 
says a senior member of Mr Howard's National Drug Council.

As Mr Howard came under fresh pressure from the College of Physicians to 
consider heroin trials and injecting rooms, he said Sweden had been "a lot 
more successful" in dealing with the drug problem than countries with a 
more liberal approach.

But according to a report by a European Community drug agency, Sweden has 
among the highest drug-related death rates in Europe and the highest rate 
of hepatitis C among people injecting heroin.

An executive member of the National Drugs Council appointed by Mr Howard, 
Professor Ian Webster, said Sweden's leaders were beginning to think again 
about the country's rigid policies on drugs.

Professor Webster, who declined to comment directly on Mr Howard's latest 
remarks, said more recent research was showing that heroin overdose rates 
in Sweden were increasing. The rates were higher than those in Switzerland, 
which had a heroin trial, and the Netherlands, both of which had "a 
multi-faceted set of responses" on addiction drugs.

But Mr Howard said that the physicians' call for a heroin trial and 
injecting rooms was unacceptable and "based upon the alleged success of 
those programs overseas".

"That's not the mail I get," he said. "The mail I get in relation to 
Switzerland is that their programs have not been successful and in contrast 
to a country like Sweden which ... has indeed been a lot more successful 
than those countries that have had a more liberal approach."

A spokesman for Mr Howard said the European survey showed a significantly 
lower take-up rate of illicit drugs by young people in Sweden - 7.7 per 
cent of its teenagers had used drugs compared with, for example, more than 
30 per cent in the Netherlands.

But a Sydney GP specialising in drug and alcohol treatment, Dr Andrew 
Byrne, said a recent European report indicated the Swedish "zero tolerance" 
approach had proved "very unenviable".

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that the 
rate for acute drug-related deaths in Sweden was among the highest at 1.5 
deaths per 100,000 population, compared with the Netherlands's 0.2, and 
with Switzerland, a non-EC member, where the death rate was reported 
elsewhere to be 0.5.

The report put HIV rates among Swedish drug users at 2 to 3 per cent, 
nearly double Australia's rate, although still low compared with southern 
European countries, where the rates were all over 15 per cent, Dr Byrne said.

Mr Howard also dismissed as inaccurate a suggestion by the Royal 
Australasian College of Physicians that the Government's illicit drugs 
policy centred on law enforcement.

He said the tough-on-drugs plan devoted 59 per cent of the $515 million 
funding since 1997 on treatment, rehabilitation, research and education.
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