Pubdate: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 Source: Courier Mail (Australia) Contact: NEW WEAPON IN DRUGS FIGHT The one indisputable fact about the illegal drug problem is that the tried and not-so-true methods of tackling it are not working. For that reason it would be foolish of the Queensland Government to turn its back on any innovation that might give us another weapon in the fight against a scourge that is destroying thousands of lives. To date, the best single chemical weapon is methadone, which replaces heroin with a controllable and legally available synthetic opiate. The methadone programme must be continued but the fact that it, too, is brutally addictive is reason enough to continue the search for other therapies or treatments. One that offers promise the controversial drug Naltrexone, the trial of which seems likely to be part of the Queensland Government's seven-point strategy to deal with youth, drugs and crime. Naltrexone is used in Israel's Ultra Rapid Opiate Detoxification programme. In which addicts are placed, under deep sedation for 24 hours and then detoxified. The programme has divided the medical community, but the previous government last year approved a trial involving 25 heroin addicts and 25 methadone addicts. That trial was thrown into doubt when Labor Health Minister Wendy Edmond expressed concerns, that the $285,000 allocated was insufficient and that patients who suffered complications during the treatment could sue doctors. Ms Edmond's original caution may well have been justified but, hopefully, when Premier Peter Beattie's promised "fine tuning" is completed, the trial can go ahead and be evaluated free of any taint of political differences. The Naltrexone trial had dominated debate, but the Government's package offers a wide-ranging, multi-pronged assault on the problem. It endeavours to tackle the underlying causes, as well as the immediate issues on the ground in some of our infamously deprived and troubled suburbs. Worrying is the claim by Tourism Minister and Member for Bundamba Bob Gibbs that Sydney-based drug dealers are doing business in Ipswich, suggesting, if nothing else, that suppliers will follow demand across any boundary. It also gives added urgency to the Government's moves for a national summit on drugs, although Opposition spokeswoman Fiona Simpson's fears of an unproductive "talkfest" should be noted. And, given the relative impotence of NSW police in the face of a blatant drug industry in Cabramatta, Sydney. It demonstrates that Queensland would be optimistic to believe that it could eradicate the problem simply through tough and simplistic 'enforcement policies. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry