Pubdate: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: 2002 News Limited Contact: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35 Author: Alison Crosweller, Victorian political reporter MANDATORY DETOX FOR ADDICTS FORCIBLY detaining teenage drug addicts and making them undergo rehabilitation is being considered by the Victorian Government. Premier Steve Bracks said legislation making it compulsory for youths to go through detox would be examined in light of his decision this week to shut down a welfare program that supervised teenagers sniffing solvents. "It is something the Government would consider among a number of other packages," Mr Bracks said. "It's really about the power of the departments or the institutions to be able to compulsorily say that the individual should stay at that institution number one and should receive detox rehabilitation services if they have a drug problem," he said. The Premier's comments come as pressure mounts on Community Services Minister Christine Campbell to resign over accusations that she lied when she said she was not aware a state-funded welfare agency supervised children as they "chromed". Ms Campbell has engaged in a debate of definitions, saying she was aware staff at the Berry Street Victoria agency "monitored" children chroming but at no time did she know they were "supervising" the practice. Mr Bracks denied any legislation locking up young drug addicts to detoxify them was a zero tolerance policy or a big shift away from the prevention approach promoted by his Government. "I think it is too simplistic to look at these arrangements as labels, the important thing is that what we are operating is proper appropriate institutional care for wards of the state as if they were in a family situation," he said. He also took a swipe at two of his senior parliamentary colleagues, who sat on the committee that heard evidence of supervised chroming at Berry Street, for failing to inform him about it. "We had discussions . . . and we did say 'why on earth didn't you tell us?'," Mr Bracks said. It was "surprising and remarkable" that the politicians did not realise that supervision of chroming would be of community concern. Mr Bracks rejected suggestions the information was not passed on to him because the committee might have seen the merits of supervised chroming as a harm-minimisation strategy. The Opposition continued its assault on Ms Campbell yesterday, saying she had lied to the people of Victoria about chroming within youth facilities. "She must go, or Premier Bracks must sack her," Opposition Leader Denis Napthine said. Dr Napthine said it was inconceivable that Ms Campbell did not know of the practice after attending a launch of the agency's policy and awarding it a best practice grant. The Opposition also attacked her for not being aware that Berry Street had publicised its supervised chroming policy on ABC radio last year. In an interview on ABC radio yesterday, Ms Campbell admitted she should have known about it. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake