Pubdate: Fri, 12 Mar 1999
Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 1999
Contact:  http://www.thecouriermail.com.au/
Author: Michael McKenna and Matthew Pinkney

PUSH TO PROBE DRUGS SCHEME

PRIME Minister John Howard is under pressure from his backbench to launch an
inquiry into allegations of widespread abuse in the methadone programme.

Liberal backbenchers have been pushing Mr Howard to extend his war on drugs
to an overhaul of the nationwide program, the first since its introduction
in 1984.

The programme, which supplies high-dosage methadone to about 3300
Queenslanders, has come under recent attack as being "out of control".

The Australian Doctors Fund, which represent 5000 doctors around the
country, said the programme needed to be thoroughly investigated, as it was
"not being properly policed or effectively run".

Executive director Stephen Millgate said the existing problems with the
programme were evident with an increasing death rate within the programme.

Allegations include that almost 30 percent of the methadone issued to
Australia's 23,000 registered addicts was being sold on the streets and that
more than three-quarters of patients were concurrently using heroin.

This week, several Liberal backbenchers are understood to have called on Mr
Howard at the joint party room meeting to launch a Government investigation.

But the Prime Minister's Office yesterday said, despite backbencher
assertions. Mr Howard was "receptive" to the idea, but there were no plans
for a Government inquiry.

"The Federal Government has an illicit drug strategy which involves funding
methadone programmes and the Government has, at this stage, no plans to
review those programmes." the spokesman said.

On Wednesday night, federal Liberal backbencher Danna Vale requested in
Parliament that the Government order a full inquiry into the methadone
programme.

The request has been publicly supported by former Australian Medical
Association president, Liberal MP Brendan Nelson, claimed there was abuse
within the programme by both "the users and the providers".

Meanwhile, the director of a Swiss heroin clinic has dismissed Mr Howard's
concerns over legalised "shooting galleries" as ill-informed.

According to the director of Switzerland's St Gallen heroin treatment
clinic, Roland Stahl, Australia's drug toll will continue to rise unless
states such as Victoria are given the chance to experiment with radical
treatments.

Mr Stahl said Australia was at a critical juncture.

"The international community is aware of your debate and the many powerful
voices on either side," he said.

"If you ask me whether prescription of heroin in Switzerland has worked, I
would say of course."

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