Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2001
Source: West Australian (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 West Australian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.thewest.com.au
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/495

HEROIN TRIALS GET BOOST

THE WA Law Society supports proposals to supply heroin to long-term addicts 
in a medically supervised trial.

Debate over so-called heroin prescription trials was reignited this week by 
an National Crime Authority report which argued the drugs scourge was so 
serious that no possible solution should be discarded.

It said police could not realistically be expected to quell the illicit 
drug trade because the profits were irresistible to organised criminals.

Law society president Ken Martin QC said yesterday that NCA chairman Gary 
Crooke QC was so well qualified that his views - right or wrong - could not 
easily be ignored.

"It comes from someone so senior and someone so hands-on that the proposal 
warrants serious consideration," Mr Martin said.

Mr Martin was commenting as the chasm widened between those sympathetic to 
the contentious treatment option and those, including Prime Minister John 
Howard, who believed it was not worth contemplating.

Mr Howard reiterated his opposition to heroin trials yesterday. He said 
they represented total surrender to the drugs menace

"Whenever I'm Prime Minister we will not support a heroin trial and we will 
not give any aid or comfort to any State or Territory that endeavours to 
conduct a heroin trial," he said.

But Health Minister Bob Kucera said examining a heroin trial did not mean 
the war on drugs was lost. "My view is let's keep an open mind on all of 
these things and I don't think it is admitting defeat to consider a trial," 
he said.

He also disagreed with WA Police Commissioner Barry Matthews"comments 
earlier this week that the battle against gangland Mr Bigs could not be won 
because they were so easily replaced.

Mr Matthews was largely supported by the NCA report which concluded that 
police alone could only intercept a small minority of drugs smuggled into 
Australia. The NCA report said advances in telecommunications and computer 
technology made it easier for organised criminals to elude detection.

Mr Kucera, a former police assistant commissioner, said it took six to 
eight months for gaps left by captured crime bosses to be filled, which was 
long enough to affect supply and save some lives.

Australian Medical Association Federal president Kerryn Phelps accused the 
Federal Government of playing politics with addicts"lives.

Dr Phelps said prescription heroin could help addicts for whom other 
treatment methods had been futile.

The ACT Government yesterday vowed to push ahead with a referendum at the 
October 20 Territory election on a heroin trial and a safe injecting room.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart