Experts and Families Reject Parliamentary Report on Drugs 700 individual signatories have rejected many of the findings of a parliamentary report ‘The Winnable War on Drugs’ that was tabled by the previous governments Bronwyn Bishop just prior to the election. Family Drug Support founder Tony Trimingham said today “The committee that produced this report was biased and ideologically based from the outset. Bronwyn Bishop spent a lot of hearing time voicing her own opinions and it was clear the report reflected her attitudes rather than the evidence presented. Only evidence that supported zero tolerance was listened too and other voices were rudely treated and their evidence ignored. 135 submissions out of 180 supported harm minimisation strategies and these were sidelined”. In its considered response to the recommendations the signatories have only supported seven of the 31 recommendations Mr Trimingham said. “Some of these recommendations, if accepted, would have very negative consequences and would no doubt cause major distress for drug users and their families!”, such as adopting out children of drug users, reducing the supply of needles and methadone treatment as well as promoting the unproven and highly dubious naltrexone implant treatment”. The signatories include researchers, doctors, nurses, social workers, drug and alcohol treatment workers, police, teachers. NGO's and more than half the signatures come from affected families. Mr Trimingham said “We have a new government and we don’t know what they will do with this report. We want to make it clear that most of the drug and alcohol sector and particularly families affected are totally opposed to the report and it recommendations and implementation of them would set us back decades in our attempts to manage the multi-complex problems of alcohol and drug abuse”. The response will be sent to the Australian National Council on Drugs for presentation to Prime Minister Rudd. For details of the full response to the report go to http://www.fds.org.au/signatories.html Tony Trimingham OAM |