Pubdate: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia Website: http://www.theage.com.au/ Forum: http://forums.f2.com.au/login/login.asp?board=TheAge-Talkback Author: Chloe Saltau, Social Policy Reporter Note: Part of the series The Heroin Debate Referenced: Sir Rupert's OPED: Injecting Rooms Deserve A Chance: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1123/a07.html POLITICAL UNITY VITAL IN FIGHT: HAMER Former Victorian Liberal premier Sir Rupert Hamer has called for leadership from Canberra - from both sides of politics - to tackle the nation's heroin crisis. But providing prescription heroin to registered addicts was not yet a practical solution, he said yesterday. Sir Rupert, a Liberal statesman well respected for his progressive social stance, supports supervised injecting rooms and prescription heroin for addicts to reduce the problems of illicit drug use. He told the annual meeting of the Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre yesterday that politicians and the public were still uneasy about heroin trials and that immediate priority should be given to boosting drug education, treatment, and research into the biological effects of addiction, combined with a vigorous Transport Accident Commission-style advertising campaign aimed at removing "any glamor or excitement" from drug taking. Sir Rupert said Victorian MPs should put aside their political allegiances and embrace recommendations contained in the Drug Policy Expert Committee's final report on drug reform, which committee chairman David Penington handed to the State Government this week. The report suggested that Victoria be ready to proceed with a heroin trial if the political climate changed. The Federal Government is emphatically opposed to a trial of supervised injecting rooms. Sir Rupert said problems emerging from laws allowing South Australians to grow up to 10 marijuana plants - such as lucrative deals to supply cannabis to distributors in other states - demonstrated the need for a coordinated national, as well as a bipartisan, approach. The Penington report proposes changing the law that prohibits the use of dangerous drugs, in an effort to encourage addicts to dispose of their syringes safely, and urged the Bracks Government to press ahead with plans for a heroin trial in spite of Prime Minister John Howard's emphatic rejection of the idea. Under the law change, possession and trafficking would remain a crime. In August Sir Rupert made a public plea in The Age for the Liberal Party to support the Bracks Government's plan to begin a trial of supervised injecting rooms. His plea infuriated the State Opposition. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake