Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2001
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Author: Linda Doherty And Brigid Delaney

POLICE LOSING DRUGS WAR, SAYS RYAN

The NSW Police Commissioner, Mr Peter Ryan, says Australia is losing the 
war on drugs - a contradiction of the Prime Minister's upbeat assessment 
that law enforcement measures are "already paying off".

Mr Ryan said that despite large heroin seizures in the past 18 months there 
was a rise in cocaine use, and an "enormous spread" of amphetamines.

"I think we are [losing the war], and so is every other country. We're not 
winning; that is the point."

Mr Howard and senior Federal ministers yesterday reinforced their 
opposition to proposals for a heroin trial, which was supported for the 
first time on Wednesday by the National Crime Authority.

"While I'm Prime Minister, while this Government is in power, we will not 
give any aid or comfort to heroin trials," Mr Howard said.

Legal figures joined doctors in supporting a heroin trial as the 
Government's drug council cited new figures showing a big fall in heroin 
overdose deaths in the past year.

The NSW and South Australian directors of public prosecutions said 
medically prescribed heroin should be trialled on a limited basis. The 
Queensland Chief Justice, Mr Paul de Jersey, last month floated the need 
for "creative, possibly even radical new measures".

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Nicholas Cowdery, QC, said the 
overwhelming legal view was that drug addiction was a health and social 
problem "which cannot be effectively dealt with by the criminal justice 
system".

The chairman of the National Council on Drugs, Major Brian Watters, said 
there had been "an enormous downturn in heroin deaths", with Victorian 
overdose deaths falling from 200 last year to 27 for a comparable period 
this year. In NSW, he said, the death rate was down 30-40 per cent.

"We are getting on top of the problem," he said.

The NCA's report on organised crime, which relaunched the heroin trial 
debate, found that opioid deaths had more than trebled from 302 to 958 in 
the 10 years to 1999.

The latest available figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 
that nationally drug deaths rose from 737 in 1998 to 960 in 1999. In NSW 
there were 358 deaths in 1998 and 402 in 1999.

Mr Howard said a heroin trial would send a "surrender signal", and the 
Treasurer, Mr Costello, told the NCA to "leave policy matters to the 
elected representatives".

The Federal Police Commissioner, Mr Mick Keelty, was also at odds with the 
NCA. In the past two years a police supply reduction strategy had created a 
"heroin drought", he said.

The NCA report noted the heroin shortage in the first few months of this 
year, and corresponding steep price rises, but concluded this was a 
"temporary fluctuation".

The Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, who said he would consider proposals 
from the states for a heroin trial and safe injecting rooms, defended the 
NCA's intervention.

"This is not a report from some bunch of pinko Liberals out on the streets; 
this is a report from the National Crime Authority, which is the 
over-arching crime-fighting body."

The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Kerryn Phelps, said 
a trial was another option in what should be a health approach to drug 
dependence.

"The medical profession is very disappointed that the Prime Minister won't 
consider a prescribed heroin trial because we believe that in some people 
this just might work," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom