Pubdate: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Reuter) Australia's conservative government on Tuesday gave in to mounting public protests and quashed a controversial proposal to give addicts heroin only weeks after approving the plan. Prime Minister John Howard, elected last year partly on a family morals platform, said cabinet did not believe the benefits of the trial planned by Canberra's municipal government outweighed the costs. ``It's not just a question of morality ... everybody is deeply worried about the level of heroin addiction in Australia,'' he told reporters after the cabinet decision. The national government's support was vital to the limited trial because it was to provide money and its permission was needed to import the drug, which is illegal in Australia. ``The decision is very disappointing,'' said a spokesman for Canberra government chief Kate Carnell. National, state and territory health ministers three weeks ago gave the goahead to the trial programme, under which Canberra's local government would give heroin to 40 addicts. Although Howard's health minister, Michael Wooldridge, voted for the trial at the ministerial summit, Howard was away from work at the time, hospitalised with pneumonia. ``I have had the parents of children who have died through drug overdoses plead with me, plead with me, not to weaken the law ... not to experiment with trials, not to do anything that could send an adverse signal,'' Howard said. ``I am a human being, I am the prime minister and I am trying to bring the best judgment that I can.'' The trial was aimed at studying the effectiveness of supplying safe heroin to prevent overdoses, fight the spread of disease from shared needles, cut drugrelated crime and improve the quality of life of addicts. If successful, it could have led to an extensive A$10 million (US$7.4 million) twostate programme involving 1,000 addicts. Some Australian media campaigned heavily against the trial, with one newspaper condemning the health ministers who approved it as drug traffickers in suits. Opinion polls have shown public opposition to the trial at about 55 percent. Carnell said in a statement Canberra would continue with alternative treatment trials using other drugs, including methadone.