Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Author: Margo Kingston DON'T ADVOCATE A TRIAL, ADVISERS TOLD The Prime Minister's hand-picked advisory body on drugs has been told the Government will never support a heroin trial and is not interested in receiving contrary advice, despite most of the council's 15 members favouring the option. The Government's intransigence has forced the council not to adopt any policy on a trial, giving its prohibitionist chairman, the Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters, free rein to oppose the trial publicly in a personal capacity. It is understood that at least two council members are now considering resigning after Mr Howard's social policy adviser, Mr John Perrin, confirmed the Government's closed mind at a council meeting in Hobart this week. It is understood Mr Perrin said it was pointless for the council to give the Government advice that it should allow a heroin trial, and that the Government did not want members to make statements supporting one. Up to 12 of the 15 council members support a limited heroin trial to assess whether prescribing heroin to addicts unsuited to any other treatment is helpful. A spokesman for Mr Howard said Mr Perrin denied he had "gagged" the council. Two members of the council are on the international body assessing the results of heroin trials around the world but Mr Howard has not sought their advice. He has also refused to meet academics from the body which designed the aborted ACT heroin trial, the Australian National University's Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, and has defied expert medical opinion to claim heroin trials have not worked. The Swiss heroin trial showed a 60 per cent decrease in addicts committing criminal offences, a significant increase in permanent employment among them and an end to their homelessness. Council member Professor Margaret Hamilton, from Melbourne's Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Service, said there was "considerable support" within the council for a heroin trial. "If it does nothing more than keep people alive who would otherwise be dead it's something we ought to try," she said. Professor Hamilton said the council would like to have an input into Mr Howard's latest plans to tackle the heroin epidemic, which he will put to a Premiers' Conference in April. But she said that since Mr Howard set up the council to advise him on drugs policy in March last year, "he's not sought the advice of the council" on any drugs policy issue. Another council member said the council had this week commissioned research on the treatment options for heroin addicts, which would include heroin trials, because "as a council the very least we can do is be honest". Mr Howard's stance on a trial has left his Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, a sitting duck for criticism, because he cleared a proposed heroin trial in the ACT in 1997 with the agreement of all the States, only to be rolled by Mr Howard. It is understood the Prime Minister's office is suspicious of Dr Wooldridge's department on the issue, believing it is too liberal. Mr Howard's office has also stripped the Health Department of its role as council secretariat. Mr Howard said yesterday the Government's stand against a regulated heroin trial was based on evidence rather than any moral stand. His main concern about a heroin trial stemmed from a desire to combat the "drug scourge". "The potential of death and deprivation and quality of life, particularly for young people, concerns me far more than some abstract moral theory," he told the Nine Network. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck