Pubdate: Thur, 04 Mar 1999 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 1999 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: http://www.theage.com.au/ Author: Gay Alcorn, Nicole Brady and Ewin Hannan MAJORITY OF VICTORIANS SUPPORTS HEROIN TRIALS, POLL FINDS The majority of Victorians support medically supervised heroin trials and safe injecting houses for heroin addicts, an A.C.Nielsen AgePoll has found. The poll, taken late last week, found that most Victorians and residents of the ACT - where a proposed heroin trial was scuttled by the Federal Government in 1997 - were in favor of the proposals. However, a narrow majority of Australians were opposed. In other developments: The Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, effectively ruled out a heroin trial yesterday after the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, threatened to use federal laws to scuttle the plan. In an apparent reference to Mr Howard's blanket opposition, Mr Kennett said people who did not come to the drug debate with an open mind did the community a disservice. Mr Kennett refused to rule out the establishment of injecting rooms for addicts, despite declaring on Tuesday that ``safe houses'', as currently proposed, were ``not on''. ``Again, can I just say, I don't write it out. I'm happy to look at it. I think we should look at everything.'' The federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, fully supported the Prime Minister's stand on heroin trials, but said heroin ``is a scourge which we have to do everything in our power to meet''. The national AgePoll found that Australians were overwhelmingly unhappy with the Howard Government's performance on the drugs crisis, despite Mr Howard making it a priority and committing $270million in his ``Tough on Drugs'' strategy. Sixty-three per cent of the 2063 people polled thought the Government was doing a poor job; 23 per cent believed it was doing a good job. Nationally, slightly more Australians oppose a heroin trial (48 per cent) than support it (45 per cent). Similar numbers (49 per cent to 45 per cent) reject safe injecting houses. However, 53 per cent of those polled in Victoria supported a trial (second only to the ACT on 55 per cent) and 52 per cent thought that injecting houses should be tried. The poll reveals Australians are sharply divided on the issue by age. Half of those aged 18 to 39 supported a heroin trial, while only 36 per cent of those aged 55 and over agreed with the idea. There were also marked differences between the attitudes of city and country people. Most Australians (71 per cent) did not wish to see heroin decriminalised. Young people were more opposed to decriminalisation than older people, with 76 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 opposed, compared with 70 per cent of people aged 55 and over. On heroin trials, Mr Kennett said Mr Howard's position ruled out the states going ahead. He said while extra funding and education might discourage the potential number of addicts, it would not get addicts off drugs. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck