Duff Beer is the brew favoured by Homer Simpson, which he drinks at home on the couch as a fun way of passing time. Curiously, the director of research at the Australian Drug Foundation is a man named Duff - Dr Cameron Duff - who kind of declared this week that drugs, notably party drugs, are the new beer. "Drug use seems to have become a leisure activity in its own right," he said, citing a foundation survey of 380 peppy Melbourne nightclubbers. [continues 535 words]
At his lowest point, "John" remembers scoring heroin in the city, overdosing on the way home, while his son "Zach" sat beside him on the train. "I was in no condition to look after him," he said. To speak to John now and see him with Zach (not their real names), he seems what he is - a 30-year-old, quietly spoken dad, the product of a middle-to-upper-class family. He has used heroin since he was 16. Now 30, he has been in Odyssey House for 11 months. [continues 383 words]
Sydney police on Sunday denied they were embarrassed to be tipped off by journalists that a busy inner-city convenience store was allegedly selling drugs over the counter. The owner of an Oxford Street convenience store was charged on Sunday with drug possession following a police operation launched only after officers were alerted by a newspaper on Friday to alleged drug-dealing in the city's nightclub district. The story published in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper on Sunday alleges a journalist was able to buy $40 worth of marijuana and an ecstasy tablet by asking for `tally-ho' and `pills' over the convenience store counter. [continues 267 words]
Ecstasy and marijuana are reportedly being sold openly from a convenience store in one of Sydney's busiest streets. The 24-hour retail outlet in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, is a front for a major drug-dealing racket, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Its reporters conducted a covert investigation of the store over four nights and witnessed packets of the illegal drugs being handed out to 60 customers, including teenagers, over five hours. Marijuana was sold in $20 sachets and ecstasy pills at $40 each, the paper said. [continues 118 words]
The Howard Government's drug taskforce is launching a new offensive against marijuana, with a booklet that the taskforce's head says will "tell the truth" and combat the "trivialisation" of the drug's dangers. Australian National Council on Drugs chairman Brian Watters yesterday said a "pro-marijuana lobby" had successfully promoted the idea that cannabis was no more dangerous than alcohol and should be legalised. "I think there has been a really concerted effort in some quarters to trivialise its effects," he said. "The pro-marijuana lobby have done very well. They are very, very active." [continues 388 words]
The good news is that heroin use is down, which has led to a decline in property crime, writes Ross Gittins. You wouldn't believe it, but at long last we're making progress in the war against drugs. Evidence is mounting that we've succeeded in limiting the supply of heroin available, which has led to a decline in its consumption and the harm it causes. What's more, the decline in heroin use has led to a decline in property crime. And these good outcomes flow from the workings of simple market forces. [continues 824 words]
Kabul, Afghanistan Afghan soldiers yesterday demolished nearly 40 heroin factories in the remote mountainous province of Nangarhar which borders Pakistan in a large-scale anti-drugs operation, officials said. The drug-producing cells were destroyed one day after the Ministry of Interior announced a plan to eradicate poppy crops around the country and as Afghanistan's administration was due to meet with world leaders in Berlin for a major aid pledging conference. "Recently we were informed of a large number of newly-built heroin factories near the border with Pakistan in the Achin area of Shinwari district," close to the Khyber Pass, Nangarhar governor Haji Din Mohammed said. [continues 193 words]
WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan's opium poppy crop has soared. This year's harvest could be twice as large as last year's near-record crop unless eradication efforts are stepped up immediately, according to the US State Department. The heroin business was "almost definitely" filling the coffers of the Taliban and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, another Afghan extremist group linked to Osama bin Laden, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Robert Charles, said on Thursday. It was also "possibly" enriching al-Qaeda fighters, he said. [continues 338 words]
Queensland police and their military counterparts today raided barracks in Townsville as part of the army's continuing crackdown on illegal drug use among soldiers. Brigadier David Morrison, Commander 3 Brigade, said the raids at Lavarack Barracks targeted 19 soldiers from a number of the brigade's units after information was received alleging illegal drug use. He said the raids by 25 officers from the Military Police and Queensland Police should not reflect on the outstanding work done by the majority of soldiers within those units or the entire brigade. [continues 117 words]
SYDNEY (AAP) -- Two Australian women jailed in Thailand for heroin smuggling flew into Sydney this morning under a prison transfer scheme. Jane Dawson McKenzie, 38, and Deborah Letitia Spinner, 36, were sentenced to 50 years in a Thai prison in 1997 after being caught trying to smuggle 115 grams of heroin to Australia from Bangkok. The women arrived at Sydney Airport on the 6.25am (AEDT) Qantas flight from Bangkok via London. A Corrective Services spokesman said both women would complete normal immigration and customs procedures in a secure location at the airport before being transferred to Mullawa women's prison. [continues 187 words]
The recipe for GHB is widely available on the internet, and has been for years, making it accessible for young users, according to police and leading researchers. A search by The Sunday Age took less than 60 seconds to find step-by-step instructions on how to make the dangerous drug. One website even had two recipes on how to make GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate. It listed the exact chemicals, equipment and dosages needed to make the drug, with safety tips on handling the substances. [continues 232 words]
It's the DIY party drug for young ravers. So cheap and easy to make dealers are hardly necessary. It's an internet drug that can be concocted in the backyard. It took The Sunday Age 60 seconds to find the recipe online. All these factors combine to make it a dangerously uncertain hit. Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as fantasy, GBH (grievous bodily harm), liquid ecstasy and liquid E, is a central nervous system depressant, an anaesthetic with sedative properties. It costs less than $5 a dose. [continues 1116 words]
A. Bearsley (11/3) argues against the legalisation of drugs by stating that alcohol and tobacco are currently legal, and cause an enormous amount of harm. While that is true, no sensible person would argue that alcohol and tobacco should be banned. The United States tried to prohibit liquor in the first half of the 20th century and it was a dismal failure, just as the current worldwide ban on drugs is a dismal failure. There is a big difference between condoning drug use as acceptable, and making drugs legal. We need to take a harm-minimisation approach. [continues 84 words]
The Victoria Police wants tougher laws to prosecute illegal drug manufacturers. The police want to remove the presumption of innocence for people found with substantial quantities of ingredients used to make illegal drugs. It would mean that people caught with such ingredients would be presumed guilty unless they could persuade the courts they were not planning to use them to make illicit drugs. Or, if this was unacceptable, police suggested the Government consider introducing a new offence of possession of precursor chemicals or drug manufacturing equipment without a lawful excuse. The proposals are being considered by a state parliamentary committee, due to report on its Inquiry into Amphetamine and "Party Drug" Use in mid-April. [continues 350 words]
This week's mass overdose on the drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) at the Two Tribes rave event in Melbourne (The Age, 9/3) highlights the need for a legal recreational drug industry, over and above that of alcohol. As the medical drug industry shows, when standards are set and quality regulated, the risks of drug-taking can be managed and such disaster averted. It is of the utmost importance that unbiased information, combined with quality control, is applied to this large and inextinguishable market. Under the present "tough on drugs" paradigm, this is impossible. [continues 104 words]
Nick Fahey (8/3) is right about Footscray being "a fantastic place to live, work and visit". But it would be a mistake to ignore or to play down the seriousness of the drug problem here. Central Footscray is awash with drug-related crime. Soon after moving here from West Footscray two years ago, we were burgled three times in four weeks. Addicts have come to our property to use the tap. Potential thieves have knocked on the door "casing the joint". Deals have been made in cars outside our house, needles thrown out the window. And one Sunday recently, under the tree outside our house, there was a young couple with their one-year-old baby, changing his nappy and shooting up at the same time. So your recent report (5/3) on the drug trade in Footscray was no news to us. [continues 343 words]
Health authorities have warned about the dangers of the party drug GHB after a spate of overdoses at dance festivals in Melbourne and Sydney in the past few days. The Metropolitan Ambulance Service said 11 people were taken to hospital after overdosing on GHB, or Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, at the Two Tribes dance party at Rod Laver Arena between 1am and 10am yesterday. Later yesterday, a woman attending the Earthcore dance party at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl was also taken to hospital after taking the drug. [continues 512 words]
Police activity in Footscray resulting in 50 arrests and more than 350 charges being laid gives the impression that local traders and residents see this as a successful strategy in "getting rid of the scourge" (The Age, 5/3). Such strategies are well known to simply shift the problem geographically and have no impact overall. Young people caught up in a pattern of problematic drug use are already in trouble; being arrested and charged by itself does nothing to address this significant public health problem. Indeed such a strategy may produce more harm than was intended. First, it may introduce young people to a criminal justice system that places them in contact with older more sophisticated offenders. Second, it may disperse them into more hidden residential environments where the risks of overdose are greater. [continues 66 words]
Footscray gets a bashing - again. From reading "Drugs crackdown" (The Age, 5/3) one might be forgiven for thinking that central Footscray has become an urban no-go zone, Melbourne's very own Bronx. Drugs, knives, hold-ups, "streets littered with cigarette butts", undercover sting operations - there goes the neighbourhood! Apparently, central Footscray is so dangerous that "people think twice about getting into the car and driving to the market". The trouble is, for the life of me, I can't reconcile this "badlands" image with the Footscray where I live and run a small business. When I step out from my house or shop, I see a bustling and dynamic community. When I stroll through the Nicholson Street mall, the gangs I notice are the clusters of elderly Greek and Vietnamese people meeting to chat and soak up the street, or the mobs of little kids running about. [continues 212 words]
The Burnet Institute has carried out health-focused research with drug users for more than 15 years. Much of this has occurred during periods of increased police activity. The recent crackdowns on drug trafficking in Footscray (The Age, 5/3) are old news. Police strategies aimed at controlling the use and availability of heroin provide solutions for only a minority of those involved. These crackdowns will never reduce the amount of heroin available on the streets. Research here and in Sydney shows that they only increase drug users' risk of overdose, HIV and hepatitis C. [continues 69 words]
Police have not ruled out further operations after arresting more than 50 people over heroin trafficking in the City of Maribyrnong this week. Residents and traders were praised by police yesterday for the success of the operation after more than 350 charges were laid for alleged trafficking of the drug. A 29-year-old Carlton man was charged with 54 counts of trafficking. "We will continue to get rid of the scourge," said Acting Senior Sergeant Steve Meehan. "The people of Footscray... want to know that they are safe." [continues 297 words]
The Australian navy and state police forces are involved in seven joint investigations into illicit drug use by sailors, including one at Victoria's largest naval base, HMAS Cerberus, amid growing concerns about drug problems in the Australian Defence Force. Three searches for drugs have been carried out since September at Cerberus, which, according to the Royal Australian Navy, now accounts for half the detected drug offences in the service. The current probe at the base is the fifth joint investigation between the navy and Victoria Police since May 2002 into illegal drugs. [continues 598 words]
Many heroin and cannabis users regularly drive under the influence of drugs, a National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre survey has found. About half of all drug users in the survey said they drove at least once a month after using drugs. One in three said they had had an accident under the influence of illicit drugs, and that they often drove without a licence and in unregistered cars. Centre spokesman Paul Dillon said illicit drugs could impair perceptions, awareness and reaction times. Young people especially needed to be educated about the dangers. [continues 294 words]
People who smoke pot don't belong to a subculture, they're part of the mainstream. Australians don't really need an excuse to have a drink but it's that time of year where you can really drink up, indulge as much as you want; get drunk, smashed, blotto - no one will really mind. You can start drinking at the lunchtime barbie or picnic, down at the beach or while you're watching the cricket; you can do it in front of your parents and kids and with neighbours and friends. [continues 713 words]
The good news about illicit drugs is the increasing worldwide support for a drug policy based on evidence rather than prejudice. In 1971, President Nixon discovered that the 'War Against Drugs' was a political 'Viagra' for aging male politicians gradually losing their electoral potency. But the world now faces its most serious public health problem since the Black Plague. Injecting drug use is today the major or second major factor in HIV infection for 90 per cent of the world's population. Slowly but surely, populist, short-term approaches to drugs are being replaced by longer-term, evidence-based approaches. Drugs, considered a criminal justice issue for more than half a century, are now increasingly being redefined as primarily a health and social problem. [continues 216 words]
Australian Defence Force personnel will face random drug tests after it was found almost half the troops at a Darwin army barracks used drugs. A Senate committee has been told 47 out of 97 soldiers urine tested at Darwin's Robertson army barracks had used illicit drugs. Military and civilian police last month raided the barracks after reports of widespread drug use at the barracks. Assistant Defence Minister Mal Brough said the ADF would begin conducting random drug tests, with about 10 per cent of personnel to be screened in the first year of testing. [continues 124 words]
In an Australian first, the Victorian government today moved to give police powers to conduct random roadside drug testing. Under legislation now before state parliament, from July next year roadside drug screening will be used to detect drivers affected by cannabis and speed with a saliva test. Transport Minister Peter Batchelor said drugs were involved in 27 per cent of road fatalities last year. "It clearly indicates that the taking of illicit drugs is a major factor of similar proportions as the over-consumption of alcohol in fatalities on our roads," he said. [continues 106 words]
James started smoking cannabis when he was 12, insisting that it was "normal" among all his friends. Now 14, he's growing his own marijuana plants - his mother discovered them by the gladioli - and has promised to work for better school grades if he's allowed to keep them. "What can I do?" agonizes his mother, Liz. "If I let him grow it at least he will have his own supply. If he has to go and buy it, then he risks meeting older people selling Ecstasy and other nasty pills. And if I don't let him have any money, he will find ways of getting some," she frets, asking that the family name not be used. [continues 439 words]
Smoking pot may make you paranoid, forgetful and dopey but it now appears that cannabis doesn't increase your chances of dying. A provocative editorial in the British Medical Journal suggests marijuana may be safer than previously thought, following a review of two large bodies of medical evidence. According to Stephen Sidney, associate director for clinical research at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in California, rates of death and disease associated with cannabis use are unlikely to have a significant public health impact. [continues 272 words]
Police allegedly took 13.5 kilograms of marijuana valued at $100,000 from a man during a drug raid by corrupt detectives, a court was told yesterday. Daniel May, a witness, told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that he had arranged to deliver the cannabis - which another man had brought from South Australia - to an associate at the St Kilda Marina on May 10, 1999. Mr May said that during the drug deal, two cars pulled up unexpectedly and some plain-clothes police got out. He said one grabbed him, handcuffed him and threw him face down to the ground. He said that in the split second before he fell, he saw one of the men getting plastic bags full of marijuana from the back of his truck before throwing them to another. The police then let him go. [continues 293 words]
The man who made the falafel a best-seller has returned to low-life culture for his latest book. John Birmingham explains why to Luke Benedictus. Who is John Birmingham? His books present him as cyclonic, a gonzo journalist dealing in danger, disaster and madness. Could this be the same John Birmingham as the softly spoken man with thick stubble and a receding hairline drinking tea in a Collins Street cafe? Yes, it could, and it is. Birmingham, 38, is a family man, married to a lawyer, two small children, and goes to the gym each day. He says the other, hard-living image is inappropriate, but it doesn't bother him. [continues 1317 words]
An influential Melbourne health forum is lobbying the State Government to trial syringe vending machines in areas of high drug use. The Yarra Drug and Health Forum says the trial could be modelled on NSW's syringe vending machine program, now in its 10th year. The forum met with Department of Human Services representatives and, according to minutes from its July meeting, found them to be "quite receptive" to the proposal. Maribyrnong and Port Phillip have expressed an interest in participating in the trial. Both municipalities, along with the cities of Melbourne, Yarra and Greater Dandenong, were identified as areas of high-level drug activity by the State Government's drug policy committee. [continues 469 words]
A More Honest Approach To The Effects Of Drugs Is Needed Rather Than Simply Demonising Them, Reports Guy Rundle. When was it that a dozen or so diverse types of herbs, extracts and pills first came to be bundled together under the general name and concept of "drugs"? It goes back as far as I can remember - into the early 1970s. It probably took hold only a decade before that. After all, heroin wasn't fully criminalised until the 1950s and marijuana was in the "reefer madness" period - wild lies about the weed transforming you into an axe-wielding zombie. [continues 2414 words]
A drug to help people stop smoking cigarettes by blocking cannabis receptors in the brain is being tested in Melbourne, with encouraging early results. The drug, which is taken daily as a pill, is being tested on 75 people at the Alfred Hospital. Professor Jayashri Kulkarni of the hospital and Monash University, said there had been a flood of interest in the two-year program, with participants showing encouraging early signs. "They've said it's the first time they've not had a craving for a cigarette," she said. [continues 514 words]
Preliminary legislation to allow the medical use of cannabis has been delayed until the next session of parliament because of its complexity, NSW Premier Bob Carr said. The government must overcome many difficult legal and moral issues before the trial can go ahead, including how to control the supply of medicinal cannabis. Mr Carr said an exposure bill for the scheme would be released late this month, with a three week consultation period to follow. "There are a number of issues to work through in order to set up the trial," he said. [continues 118 words]
A series of radio advertisements would warn teenagers of the negative effects of using cannabis, the NSW government said. Special Minister of State John Della Bosca has launched the "bold" second phase of the state government's youth anti-cannabis initiative. This stage follows the "loser" poster series which hit cinemas and the streets during the summer school holidays. Mr Della Bosca said the radio ads were "unashamedly targeted at young people". "Cannabis is not harmless," Mr Della Bosca said in a statement. [continues 105 words]
Ed Rosenthal, the self-proclaimed "Guru of Ganja", has walked free after a federal judge sentenced him to just one day in prison for growing marijuana that Rosenthal said was for medical purposes. He could have been sentenced to 60 years behind bars. Judge Charles Breyer said Rosenthal genuinely believed that what he was doing was not against the law. "He was unaware his conduct was not immunised from federal prosecution," the judge said. Rosenthal's case represented the latest clash between state and federal authorities over the medical use of marijuana. The federal Government does not recognise medical marijuana laws in California and the eight other states that have them. [continues 254 words]
People who expressed outrage at a planned trial of marijuana for medicinal purposes should think of the victims of chronic disease before condemning the idea, medical experts said today. Support for the NSW trial came as pain management authorities put forward an "electronic bong" device capable of administering a controlled amount of cannabis without the harmful effects of smoking. Professors, doctors and researchers today threw their weight behind the NSW government's move to provide the chronically ill with prescription cannabis where appropriate. [continues 220 words]
Marijuana smokers tend to drive more slowly but that does not make them any safer. They have trouble staying in their lanes and making quick decisions when something unusual happens, research shows. Swinburne University researchers have been testing the effects of marijuana and alchohol on driving. They have found that regular pot smokers are better drivers than occasional users while under the influence of the drug. Katherine Papafotiou, of the university's drugs and driving unit, said 80 regular and non-regular marijuana smokers had volunteered for the trial, which was continuing. [continues 138 words]
The Victorian Government is removing the crime of witchcraft from the statutes. And along with that it is dropping fortune-telling, enchantment and sorcery from the books. There hasn't been a witch burning in these parts for donkey's years. In fact, forever. And I'm not certain that I would recognise enchantment or sorcery if I saw them, but I'm sorry to see these laws go. It is good to have laws against witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment and fortune-telling, along with the laws against sedition, blasphemy and the abominable crime of buggery, just to remind us that the law is not revealed truth from on High, but is the creation of fallible, stupid, superstitious men and women. Far too many people are dazzled by what they suppose to be the sacred nature of law and are offended by the proposition that a bad law is no law at all. [continues 522 words]
Arj Barker, Doug Benson and Tony Camin Athenaeum Theatre, until April 20 This show is a deliberate and brazen take-off of the long-running Vagina Monologues, that wildly successful and deliberately iconoclastic airing of taboo and prejudice, enthusiastically embraced by many famous female performers. The Marijuana Logues also tackles a taboo head-on, the illegal practice of smoking, eating or anyway ingesting that banned substance. Its three performers are, naturally, laid-back dudes who are way cool. They quickly establish a rapport with the audience that presumes a shared enjoyment of the weed. They even do a quick clapping response survey in favour of legalisation. [continues 204 words]
Crime and the cost of fighting and dealing with it costs Australia about $32 billion annually, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology. In a report to be released today, the institute includes costs such as medical treatment and lost productivity from victims of assaults and homicides, property lost in burglaries and car thefts, credit card and employee fraud, and arson and vandalism. Institute director Adam Graycar said the report revealed the hidden costs of crime. Estimating its costs was important in directing law enforcement into areas where it would be of most benefit, he said. [continues 317 words]
Dean Jefferys Recounts His Part In A Controversial Trip, Reports Elisabeth Tarica. Filmmaker Dean Jefferys first stumbled into the mysterious world of hallucinogenic shamanic rituals in 1992. He had travelled to the headwaters of the Amazon in Ecuador to film tribal people defending their ancestral territory from an American oil company. He met a shaman - a tribal spiritual guide and medicine man with encyclopedic knowledge of jungle plants and their uses - and had his first experience with the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca. [continues 481 words]
Claims that cannabis relieves pain have been contradicted by new research. UK anaesthetist Dilip Kapur told delegates at an Australian and New Zealand pain conference that despite repeated claims that cannabis had medicinal qualities, its use in chronic pain management was questionable. The unpublished data released by Dr Kapur shows synthetic cannabinoid nabilone (derived from the cannabis plant) did not reduce chronic pain in people suffering from a variety of conditions, including nerve damage. His comments at the conference in Christchurch, New Zealand, were based on preliminary results from a 14-week trial of 60 people, many of whom had experienced chronic pain for up to five years. [continues 248 words]
SAN DIEGO, California -- Two Pakistanis and an Indian-born US citizen pleaded not guilty yesterday to peddling heroin and hashish to buy Stinger missiles for the al-Qaeda terror network. The men denied the charges when they appeared in court in the San Diego for the first time following their extradition from Hong Kong where they were arrested last September in a US-led police swoop. They are charged with selling 600 kg of heroin and five tonnes of hashish to buy shoulder-fired Stingers that were to be resold to the masterminds of the September 11, 2001 terror strikes on US targets. [continues 383 words]
Bangkok Foreign diplomats have been assured that Thailand's war on drugs, in which more than 1000 people have been killed, is being conducted lawfully. Thailand's Foreign Ministry gave a special briefing to diplomats on Sunday to head off growing alarm over the campaign's rising death toll. Police say 1035 people have been killed in the past month but, with the number of drug dealers gunned down rising rapidly, there are concerns among human rights groups and the United Nations that officers have been carrying out extra-judicial killings. [continues 218 words]
It Was the Biggest Drug Bust the Town Had Ever Seen, and Tom Coleman Was Its Hero. But Then It All Went Wrong. Tulia, Texas. You'll find it on Route 27, at the end of a flat and featureless landscape south of Amarillo, a small town famous for nothing until suddenly notoriety blew in like a dust storm. Tulia, Texas: bypassed by time, population 5000 and falling, some agriculture, some cattle, but where depressed wheat and beef prices and a vanishing watertable have left the community facing hard times. [continues 2677 words]
The Prime Minister's chief lieutenant in the war on drugs has criticised a proposal by the NSW Greens to make heroin and other illegal drugs available in controlled quantities. Chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs, Salvation Army major Brian Watters, also the said allowing illicit substances to be distributed over the counter would send the wrong message to addicts and potential users. Major Watters said the prime minister's "zero tolerance" approach to drugs had seen a 75 per cent reduction in drug-related deaths in the past three years and a 25 per cent reduction in people using drugs. [continues 206 words]
More people would die of heroin overdoses if John Howard's senior drug policy adviser's view that drug addicts should be detained and detoxed against their will was followed, a drugs social worker yesterday. Les Twentyman, of the Open Family Foundation, said the proposal of Major Brian Watters, chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs, would have addicts resuming their habits once released and overdosing because of reduced tolerance to drugs. Major Watters said on Friday that families should be able to seek help for children and relatives whose drug addictions were out of control, likening it to a process of committing someone to a mental hospital. But Mr Twentyman accused Major Watters of "becoming more irrelevant in this topic every time he opens his mouth". The proposal was also rejected by the Victorian Government, which would have to legislate for it to take effect. "In terms of implementation, it raises more questions than it answers, and appears unworkable," a spokesman said. [end]
Drug sniffer dogs should be banned and illicit drugs such as heroin given out to lower crime and overdoses, NSW Greens MLC Ian Cohen said. Mr Cohen has called for a trial to allow registered addicts to access heroin and other addictive drugs through special clinics. "The Carr Labor government must ends its 'war on drugs' in NSW and pursue positive strategies that reduce harm and better manage the supply of illicit drugs," Mr Cohen said in a statement. The plan has been backed by Dr Alex Wodak, director of Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent's Hospital, who said the government's prohibition policy had demonstrated that reliance on criminal law and the police to control drug abuse produced little benefit. [continues 111 words]
