Pubdate: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 Source: The Chronicle (Canberra, Australia) Contact: Fax +61 2 6239 1345 Author: Colliss Parrett HEROIN TRIAL IS NOT THE ANSWER THE LEGISLATIVE Assembly Speaker, Greg Cornwell, was 100 per cent correct when he said, in the article "The drug dilemma" (The Chronicle, August 25): "I don't believe we've even started to fight". And anti-corruption Royal Commissioner Athol Moffitt's reported statement in the same article that harm minimisation is a defeatist strategy is also 100 per cent correct. The community is not stupid, and it knows full well that the message "don't take drugs" will not be observed by all. It wasn't with tobacco so why would it with heroin or cannabis etc? But it is vital to recognise that the prohibitionist "don't smoke" message has reduced smoking rates from 75 per cent to 25 per cent, mainly in the last 30 years. A fantastic achievement. Why so effective? Essentially because, although smoking was (is) legal, governments, health authorities and the general community made it socially unacceptable. Well may the community ask why, with such a successful prohibitionist policy on smoking, do pro-legalisation advocates pursue a philosophy which will make illicit drugs more socially acceptable? That one is licit and the others illicit makes no difference. The compassionate - saving of lives is not the answer either, as we all want that. It's what happens after the opiate addicts. That's why help should always be there for their second or third attempts. It worked with smokers as we now have more ex-smokers than smokers. And if politicians reject shooting galleries and heroin trials it will work for opiate addicts as well. In short, the dilemma is not caused by drugs, it's caused by not adopting the right policy. Colliss Parrett Bruce - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake