Pubdate: Thu, 22 Feb 2001
Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 News Limited
Contact:  2 Holt Street, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
Fax: (02) 9288-2300
Website: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
Author: Piers Akerman

REPORT SMACKS OF SOUR GRIPES

The war against drugs, which critics claimed was pointless, is apparently 
having an effect -- heroin is in short supply on the streets of Sydney.

It sure sounds like a minor victory to me.

But far from this being a cause for celebration, a Sydney Morning Herald 
report finds that it is all bad news. Why? Because heroin addicts are being 
forced into using methadone, applying for detoxification, and feeling 
anxious about overdosing when supplies are "inevitably" restored.

Firstly, let's say that we hope that supplies of smack aren't restored and 
offer a hearty congratulations to Joint Asian Crime Squad, the Australian 
Federal Police, Customs and the National Crime Authority and local police 
whose busts have resulted in reducing the amount of smack available.

The Herald, which has long supported the use of heroin with lifestyle 
articles putting the case for chic middle-class drug users who are able to 
"manage" their habits, takes a somewhat different point of view.

It breathlessly reports that the shortage has forced junkies into, wait for 
it, Naltrexone clinics and private detoxification clinics from Edgecliff to 
Fairfield and Campbelltown (which is really on the outskirts of the 
Herald's inner-urban focused coverage).

Why, says the newspaper, "some local distributors had withdrawn from the 
market, at least in the short term, unwilling to gamble with increased 
risks of detection".

Hey, isn't that the sort of result we've been hoping for, or am I missing 
something here too?

Don't we all want to put dealers out of business? Don't we want to frighten 
them by making the risks of detection too great to ignore? Or is the 
Herald's reporter implying that there has been too much policing? Is the 
reporter saying heroin supplies should have been allowed to flow into the 
arms of junkies who, after all, are only using drugs because, let's be 
honest, they get a kick from them and that's their right as lying, 
cheating, stealing, inherently dishonest addicts?

Tony Trimingham, who has made a career out of issuing a particular brand of 
advice to parents of junkies ever since one of his own children tragically 
died of an overdose, says the shortage is causing "some terrible problems 
for families and real concern of a rise in deaths if supply is restored and 
users lose tolerance".

Perhaps Mr Trimingham should look again. Perhaps there is a real 
opportunity being presented by the glass (or needle) being half empty.

Perhaps some of those junkies being forced to consider detoxification and 
other forms of treatment because of the smack shortage are being given a 
chance their indulgent parents and the ever complacent harm minimilisation 
supporters in the Health Department and at St Vincent's compliant Drug and 
Alcohol Services unit don't wish to recognise.

(Harm reduction has done little to increase the spread of illegal drug 
abuse, as the International Narcotics Control Board noted in its annual 
report released yesterday.)

The sub-plot to the Herald's entire coverage of the drug issue has been one 
of tacit acceptance.

When the authorities are seen to be winning though, the newspaper should 
have the decency to acknowledge the victory, not sniffle and quibble about 
the risks of saving junkies from their addictions.
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MAP posted-by: Beth