Pubdate: Tue, 04 Jul 2000
Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 Canberra Times
Contact:  http://www.canberratimes.com.au/
Author: John Miller

JUST A STRING OF BOO LABELS

It's fair enough that an editorial policy may favour drug harm minimisation,
but it should not misinform about those with a different approach.

In The Canberra Times (June 24, p.C2) Robert Macklin dismissed participants
at the Australian Drug Summit 2000 as latter day Calvinists. Really? One of
the Catholic priests who attended gave a drugs and ethics paper, and
prominent Catholic layman Joseph Santamaria gave another.

Among the many sponsoring organisations were three Catholic dioceses and a
Catholic club. Calvinists? Patrons included Bishop Kevin Manning, Catholic
Bishop of Parramatta, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Harry Goodhew,
Pastor Brian Houston, President, Australian Christian Churches, Rev Dr
Gordon Moyes, Superintendent Wesley Mission Sydney, G.E. (Rusty) Priest,
President NSW RSL, retired Judge Athol Moffit, Mrs Angela Wood, jockey
Darren Beadman and football icon Jack Gibson. Calvinists? Let's hear more
from them. The facts are the Summit brought together a broad coalition of
churches and groups, all with the humane objective of stopping people
becoming imprisoned by addiction to narcotics, and releasing from addiction
those who have become prisoners. They prefer 9 per cent of Australia's youth
experiment with drugs, as in Sweden, rather than the 52 per cent which is
the case in Australia. Mr Macklin's response was a string of boo-labels,
such as zero tolerance, bleak, rigid, moralistic and against compassion, joy
and the great adventure.

The truth is the Summit has brought much needed balance to the debate, It
can only help. Summit recommendations are on:
http://www.wesleymission.org.au/drugsummit/

JOHN MILLER
ACT Branch Spokesman, Christian Democratic Party
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