Source: Canberra Times (Australia) Contact: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ Pubdate: 14 Nov 1998 Section: Page 3 STATES' PUSH FOR ACT HEROIN TRIAL ADELAIDE: Australia's lord mayors launched a new push for a heroin trial yesterday, saying the Prime Minister, John Howard, was not well-advised when he scuttled a proposed trial in the ACT last year. At a meeting in Adelaide, capital city lord mayors agreed on a united harm-minimisation approach to dealing with the problem of illegal drugs, and nominated the ACT heroin trial as their top priority. They said existing strategies to counter micit drug use were failing, and called for a social health approach to the problem, rather than a criminal approach. "We believe that more of the same will not work," Melbourne Lord Mayor Ivan Deveson said. "There's no room for political dogma in this issue because we are dealing with something that's costing from 11 to 12 lives a week on average with drug overdose deaths." Hobart Lord Mayor John Freeman said the group would ask Mr Howard to reconsider his position on the proposed ACT heroin trial in the new year. Mr Howard led federal Cabinet in quashing the trial in August last year, saying it would have sent the wrong message on drug use to the community. The first stage of the trial would have involved 40 ACT addicts receiving heroin under medical supervision, while their health and ability to function in the community was closely monitored. A similar three-year trial in Switzerland found that homelessness, prostitution and crime decreased dramatically among the participants and employment sharply improved when the addicts were prescribed heroin in a controlled situation. "We believe that the Prime Minister has not been well advised to block the ACT trial and we would like to present him with new evidence so that he could perhaps re-think his position," Mr Freeman said. He believed NSW Premier Bob Carr, who has been reluctant to conduct an expanded heroin trial in Sydney, would be "more flexible" after the NSW election in March. - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski