Pubdate: Mon, 21 May 2012
Source: Parramatta Sun (Australia)
Copyright: 2012 Fairfax Media
Contact: http://www.parramattasun.com.au/feedback.aspx?data_id=2422
Website: http://www.parramattasun.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5303
Author: Mark Metherell

POLICIES SENDING 'MIXED MESSAGES'

DRUG Free Australia may not be a household name but its leaders claim
a role in repelling further moves towards what they see as the evil of
drug decriminalisation.

It fears the "tough on drugs" regime of the Howard government is
unravelling, with the abandonment of the school drug education
strategy and declining use of community advertising campaigns.

Unhealthy attitudes towards illicit drugs were "now moving upward
again", the executive officer of DFA, Jo Baxter, said. Lighter-touch
laws for cannabis use in places such as South Australia and the ACT
had gone too far towards a drug culture of "normalisation".

"Our view is that Australia's illicit drug policy is too lenient,
sending mixed messages to our youth," she said. She cited findings
that Australia had among the highest cannabis and amphetamine use in
the world but rejected the Australia21 group's declaration that the
war on drugs had failed.

The policy of harm minimisation over the past 25 years had left a
"train wreck", she said. It had devoted much funding to drug
maintenance programs rather than helping people recover from addiction.

The DFA's research director, Gary Christian, said while DFA opposed
decriminalisation, it did not support hardline approaches but rather a
greater emphasis on Swedish-style compulsory "drug-free"
rehabilitation policies.

He questioned the widely hailed reduction of heroin overdose deaths in
Kings Cross, saying many overdoses resulted from users trying out
hazardous cocktails confident in the knowledge that help was at hand.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D