The appalling behaviour of the so-called Bali Boy, the celebrity drug user and massage parlour habitue from the NSW Central Coast attracted the attention of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Therese Rein, the wife of former prime minister, now Foreign Minister and political gadfly, Kevin Rudd. After two months spent in somewhat stressful conditions in Bali, during which he was comforted by Gillard on the telephone and was provided with "enormous support" by Ms Rein, he is home with his parents. [continues 945 words]
ON THE 75th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ask yourself one question: would the NSW Government have built it today? The answer is simple. The current Government's dismal record on infrastructure has almost certainly ensured that it would NOT be able to raise the funds. Investors are running away from the Labor Government following its appalling handling of the Cross City Tunnel and the Lane Cove Tunnel developments, as worthy as they may be in the long term. [continues 773 words]
THE Carr Government has shamelessly extended the licence of its Kings Cross shooting gallery and sidelined new-chum Opposition Leader John Brogden who locked his supporters into a disgracefully uninformed conscience vote on the issue, writes PIERS AKERMAN. The reality is that the shooting gallery's much touted 12-month performance evaluation just does not stand up to scrutiny. This was only to be expected as all similar centres internationally have run into problems assessing their effectiveness. At a cost to taxpayers of $5.6 million, the centre is unable to prove that it has cut drug overdose deaths as effectively as other states which have not caved into media-driven middle-class guilt. [continues 624 words]
THE NSW Health Department acknowledges that there is no reliable data to show that legal shooting galleries are of any value. Similarly, the US Supreme Court cannot find any scientific evidence that cannabis is effective or better than any conventional medicine. These facts were enough to unleash an irrational torrent of illogic from Dr Michael Dawson, of the University of Technology, who argues that popular illegal drugs should be decriminalised. In a letter responding to last Thursday's column, he also attacked its content with the non sequitur that there was no mention of the damage alcohol had wreaked on some Aboriginal communities. [continues 95 words]
WHEN Premier Bob Carr was hit with headaches recently, it's fair to suggest that he did not smoke a couple of cones or squat beneath a spinning crystal under a mouldy kangaroo skin, sniffing smouldering gum leaves in the hope of a cure. Nor, it is safe to assume, did he ask for leeches or hot cups to be placed upon his person or for a New Age person to inspect either the irises of his eyeballs, his celestial aura or the entrails of freshly slaughtered cockerels, goats or virgins. [continues 706 words]
The Carr Government's legal shooting gallery isn't doing great business, according to those unfortunate enough to have had the facility dumped in their neighbourhood -- against their wishes -- by the Uniting Church. Only a few junkies have popped in to shoot up, or even shoot the breeze. Perhaps they will in time. The Uniting Church's publicity-seeking drug champion, the Rev Harry Herbert, is nonetheless attempting to portray the installation as a major success, even alluding to the possibility that a life has been saved through speedy action by the facility's staff. [continues 675 words]
The war against drugs, which critics claimed was pointless, is apparently having an effect -- heroin is in short supply on the streets of Sydney. It sure sounds like a minor victory to me. But far from this being a cause for celebration, a Sydney Morning Herald report finds that it is all bad news. Why? Because heroin addicts are being forced into using methadone, applying for detoxification, and feeling anxious about overdosing when supplies are "inevitably" restored. Firstly, let's say that we hope that supplies of smack aren't restored and offer a hearty congratulations to Joint Asian Crime Squad, the Australian Federal Police, Customs and the National Crime Authority and local police whose busts have resulted in reducing the amount of smack available. [continues 425 words]
SOME people are pests drunk or sober, but not many get the Federal Court to rule that their persistent obnoxious behaviour is in order. Coffs Harbour club pest Wayne Marsden appears to be the exception. In a major lurch in the wrong direction, a Federal Court judge has ruled that Marsden's record for boorish behaviour be ignored and, most curiously, that his addiction or drug dependency (which doesn't affect his tolerance for alcohol) be recognised as a legitimate disability. [continues 919 words]
Users of a range of fairly common and freely available pharmaceuticals are sternly admonished not to drive or operate heavy machinery. What then seems to be the problem about warning parents who habitually use illicit drugs that they will not be permitted to take charge of children, especially as those parents are likely to be even more greatly impaired by the potency of the drugs they take? That acquiescent attitude toward illegal drug use seems to be at the heart of the approach to the drug culture embraced by the handwringers in the NSW department and in particular, the Department of Community Services and its well-meaning director-general Carmel Niland. [continues 632 words]
THE State Government is showing particular pigheadedness in its decision to dump its legalised shooting gallery in the middle of Darlinghurst Rd. It would also appear to have contravened its own law, the Drug Summit Legislative Response Act 1999, which demands that the siting of any Government-backed shooting gallery be made after extensive community consultation and with a level of acceptance at the community and local Government level, and with regard for public health and safety, and visibility. Plonking the chosen site next to a cab rank, opposite a bus stop and opposite the Kings Cross rail station, apparently the fifth busiest in the State during peak hours and the busiest in the evenings, flies in the face of the Act. [continues 148 words]
It is impossible not to feel a sense of loss when a 26-year-old person dies inadvertently, even it that individual engaged in stupid high-risk behaviour after taking an lilegal drug. The fact remains though, it was his choice, he took his chances, and he lost -- causing grief to friends and family and sending ripples through our community. He lost, we lost. There are others however who want to make the other choice, they want to avoid drugs, and they are not being helped by our State Government. [continues 576 words]
THE Carr Government’s decision to investigate the therapeutic effects of marijuana must be regarded with some scepticism. While no one would dispute the need to continually search for new treatments to help the suffering, numerous trials on the efficacy of cannabis as a pain reliever have been conducted in a number of countries with results that can, at best, be termed indifferent. Premier Bob Carr is clearly aware of the risk of sending the wrong signal about marijuana use to the community as he went out of his way to emphasise that "those who advocate the legalisation of cannabis should not consider my statement (agreeing to the trial) as a sign of support for their cause". [continues 668 words]
THIS State owes a lot to the Sisters of Charity and St Vincent’s Hospital - -- so much so that the nuns need to be warned that they are being cynically used by those intent on pushing their pro-drug agenda. Though the good sisters may not recognise it, there is a big difference between providing compassionate care to the unfortunate victims of AIDS, as reckless as most of the sufferers may have been in their pursuit of sexual thrills; and compassionately providing shelter to junkies intent on pursuing their selfish addiction. [continues 727 words]
UNABASHED junkie Annie Madden indulges her addiction solely because it gives pleasure. The community, however, should not discriminate against her, and others like her, because it is "fear of discrimination, stigma and judgment" that stops such people going to the local needle exchange or getting medical treatment because "we fear being labelled as drug seekers". "Discriminat1on is killing us," she sniffled before delegates to the NSW Drug Summit on Tuesday. Ms Madden is wrong. In time she may be dead wrong because if she believes her calculated statement, it has the potential to kill her. It's not discrimination that's killing the drug addicts Of Sydney, it's the fact they like to use drugs which have the capacity to be fatal. [continues 554 words]
FOR five years Australians have been told that the Swiss heroin trial is the best thing to come out of that country since the cuckoo clock. The self-publicists in the drug business, some of whom have taken money from international financier George Soros, who wants to see all drugs legalised and young people sink or swim regardless, have claimed that it is "progressive" to keep junkies doped and asserted that the Swiss experiment has been an outstanding success. With few resources to conduct their own research, some of the airheads of the airwaves have swallowed this line and committed themselves to the platform supported by George Soros's award recipient Alex Wodak and the emotionally committed Tony Trimingham. [continues 480 words]
The people of NSW are entitled to be sceptical about their police force. A year ago a rabble composed largely of trade union members unlawfully picketed the wharves, bashed truck drivers and damaged property. There were no arrests. Last Saturday, The Daily Telegraph published photographs of a caravan used to distribute heroin and other illegal drugs as it stood parked in a Redfern lane. That caravan has been there two months, it superceded a previous model which had been in place for about 12 months. [continues 162 words]
FRESH on the revelation that 43 or more of the minor parties fielding candidates in the NSW election are to pool preferences comes the launch of the NSW Greens policy. What follows is a list of the programs the Greens support on drugs, but be warned, you may want to sit down before reading further. The Greens want: * Removal of all criminal sanctions for personal drug use; * Education programs for schools and the community; * Health and social programs aimed at drug users to minimise the adverse impacts on the user and the spread of disease; * Voluntary detoxification and rehabilitation for users wishing to control or end their drug use; * Provision of needle and syringe exchange programs, including wide-bore needles; * Programs toward controlled availability of heroin and safe injecting rooms; * Controlled availability of other drugs, such as ecstasy and speed, under the supervision of medically qualified personnel; * Removal of all criminal sanctions for the possession of cannabis for personal use and the growth of cannabis for personal use; * Introduction of mechanism's for testing the quality. purity and potency of drugs; * Education programs to reduce the incidence of tobacco smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol. [continues 238 words]
CRANKY Franky Sartor, the littlest Lord Mayor, didn't get his nickname because he is in favour of handing out free heroin (known to some as crank) to drug addicts. He's been known as Cranky around the traps because he is cranky. He should be pleased. It's one of his more pleasant nicknames. His hysterical overreaction last week following my criticism of the appallingly ugly advertising placards, nationally masquerading as telephone booths, was a good example of his renowned crankiness. [continues 667 words]
NEW YORK, the global welfare mecca, is about to undergo a revolution. Trailblazing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has broken the criminal stranglehold on this city, is about to tackle the welfare morass and promises to end dependency by 2000. His program should be studied by our Federal Opposition, which seems determined to win electoral favour by returning to an outdated model of failed big taxing, big spending welfarist policies. Mayor Giuliani has reduced New York City's welfare rolls by more than 400,000 since March 1995 with the implementation of a work experience program which encourages welfare recipients to develop the skills and habits necessary to get them back on their feet and become productive members of the workforce. [continues 181 words]
THE somewhat erratic Police Commissioner, Peter Ryan - some of whose actions in the recent past have smacked of political expediency - has re-entered the drug debate. Not with solutions, but with some valid questions. The approach to the drug crisis has, in recent years, been dominated by many like Dr Alex Wodak at St Vincent's who have accepted funding from advocates of liberal drug regimes such as international financier George Soros. Mr Ryan's views are therefore welcome but by no means to be taken as definitive. [continues 293 words]
