Pubdate: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia) Page: 7 Copyright: News Limited 1998 Contact: http://www.thecouriermail.com.au/ Author: Carolyn Alexander SHAKE-UP URGED IN YOUTH DRUG POLICIES ZERO tolerance is not the answer to Australia's drug problem, according to experts at an international drug conference. Telling young people to say no to drugs was not working, the First International Conference on Drugs and Young People was told yesterday. Zero tolerance - heavy policing of the streets and strict law enforcement -would only move the drug problem to another area. "We have so spectacularly lost the war on drugs that we need a new approach," said Associate Professor Michael Carr-Gregg, Centre for Adolescent Health spokesman. "Zero tolerance has not worked. It's a head-in-the-sand attitude which will just move the problem from one place to another." "It's not going to solve the problem." Professor Carr-Gregg's comments were echoed by other speakers at the Melbourne conference, which opened yesterday with almost 700 delegates. "We should understand that the zero tolerance, the just-say-no approach, simply will not work," said ACT health and community care minister Michael Moore. Australian Democrats deputy leader Natasha Stott Despoja said her party subscribed to the harm minimisation approach - reducing the harm when people do take drugs. "We believe that drug use and abuse is a social and a health problem and not necessarily a criminal issue," she said. "We can help young people to avoid drug abuse but criminalising young people in our society is not the way." Senator Stott Despoja also condemned "commonwealth versus state buck-passing" - such as on the issue of heroin trials - that she said hindered moves to more progressive approaches to drugs. New Zealand youth early intervention worker Robyn Dixon, who delivered a paper yesterday, said zero tolerance did not work. "Knowing that something is against the law doesn't stop people doing it," she said. Professor Carr-Gregg said the drug problem for young people needed to be tackled with a three-pronged approach from schools, parents and the community. "The biggest problem is that mums and dads are wagging their fingers in their sons' and daughters' faces and saying 'don't do drugs'," he said. "That doesn't give (their children) the skills, the knowledge and the strategies they need to handle exposure. "They are saying, well the school will deal with it ... that's not good enough. That's not sufficient." He said parents should educate themselves about drugs with brochures from the Australian Drug Foundation. Youth Drug Studies Centre director Geoff Munro said the best solution was for various sectors including education, drug treatment, law enforcement and drug policy, to work together to address drug-related problems. Mr Munro said organisers were confident the conclusions of the conference would have an influence on governments to make drug policies more progressive. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry