Pubdate: Thu, 22 Mar 2001
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Forum: http://forums.f2.com.au/login/login.asp?board=TheAge-Talkback
Author: Chloe Saltau

APPLAUSE FOR PLAN, WITH A WARNING

There was almost universal acceptance of the principles that would underpin 
the premier's new Drug Prevention Council, welfare experts said last night, 
but one key outreach organisation remained unconvinced that it would result 
in practical solutions for drug addicts.

While the Salvation Army offered its enthusiastic support for the statutory 
body, and the renewed emphasis on all kinds of drug prevention, street 
outreach organisation Open Family was sceptical about the potential for 
real benefits for young drug users.

"We are obviously open to anything that's going to get a practical impact 
for young people," said Open Family chief executive Nathan Stirling.

"But we have the benefit of 20 years of experience and you can just see the 
whole discussion going around in ever-increasing circles. It all depends on 
what comes out of these things, but so often nothing does. For those of us 
working actually at the street level, it's dejavu," he said.

The chief executive of VicHealth and a key member of the Drug Policy Expert 
Committee, Rob Moodie, welcomed the idea of an statutory body to oversee 
drug prevention in Victoria. Mr Moodie told the joint parliamentary sitting 
it would need to have "teeth and authority".

It was also strongly backed by the government's independent drug expert, 
David Penington, who said the council should have legislative status and 
include MPs from both sides of politics.

Salvation Army spokesman John Dalziel strongly endorsed the idea. "What it 
really is, is a continuous presence, so that we don't have to go from one 
joint parliamentary sitting to the next one. We've got this continuous 
council that says drugs are important, and will ensure the best possible 
information and education, harm minimisation, detoxification and 
rehabilitation prevention. There is almost universal acceptance of those 
basic principles," he said.

"We're concentrating on everything that everyone agrees with, so let's make 
it work. Prevention is the number one priority."

The joint parliamentary sitting was told prevention needed to be holistic, 
and it had been proven that education programs or advertising campaigns 
alone did not work.

On their own, said Turning Point director Margaret Hamilton, they had 
minimal preventive value and were "a waste of community resources".

A better understanding of the paths that led young people from soft drugs 
to more dangerous drugs, such as heroin, was needed to strengthen 
prevention programs, she said.
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