The Australian Heroin Drought:

The Case For An Inquiry Into Its Causes

And The Flood Of Methamphetamines

W.M. Bush

The article disputes the claim by the Federal Government that Australian law enforcement financed by its Tough on Drugs Strategy was primarily responsible for the heroin drought and resulting fall in overdose deaths. Law enforcement agencies!notably the Australian Federal Police through its Commissioner!have revealed intelligence to the effect that Asian crime syndicates have assessed that there is a large and very profitable market in Australia for amphetamine-like drugs and that they have made a marketing decision to promote them rather than heroin.

The paper analyses carefully these and other contributing factors of the drought, including law enforcement, put forward by the Australian Federal Police. The evidence made available by enforcement agencies suggests strongly that the prime causes of the drought were a series of poor opium harvests in Burma and the marketing decisions of crime syndicates. No other explanation fits the known facts including:

If Australian law enforcement had an effect, it was probably only a subsidiary factor. The evidence is strong that there would have been no drought in the absence of the other factors. In that case, the Government is taking credit for a decision of criminals.

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Miss Heroin

So now little man you've grown tired of grass

All that damn acid, that cocaine and hash.

And someone pretending that he is your friend

Said `I'll introduce you to Miss Heroin'.

Well honey before you start fooling with me

Just let me tell you of how it will be.

for I will seduce you and make you my slave

Believe me I've sent stronger men to their grave.

You think you could never become a disgrace

And end up addicted to poppy-seed waste.

You'll start by experimenting one afternoon

And end up asleep in my arms very soon.

Then once I have entered deep in your veins

The craving will drive you nearly insane.

You'll need lots of money as you have been told

For darling, I'm more expensive than gold.

You'll swindle your mother just for a buck

And turn into someone who's vile and corrupt.

You'll mug and you'll steal for the narcotic charms

Then feel so content when I'm in your arms.

Then you'll realise the monster inside you has grown

And you'll solemnly swear to leave me alone.

But if you think that it's easy and that you've got the knack

Then sweetie just try getting me off your back.

The vomit, the cramps, your gut in a knot

The jangling nerves screaming for just one more shot.

The hot chills, the cold sweat, the withdrawal pains

Can only be saved by my little white grains.

So now you return (just as I foretold)

And I know that you'll give me your body and soul.

You'll give me your morals, your conscience, your heart

And now you are mine till death do us part.

Author Unknown

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Life's Little Instruction Book

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Joseph

My son Joseph's self-aided departure from this earth gave me the insight to experience a small amount of the torment and turmoil he had to cope with every day.

Exposed and torn to the very core of my being, heart-broken, fragmented emotionally into many pieces, I stand up and know one thing for sure: People need love most of all.

Before Joseph left, my vision was to open a healing centre where people, vulnerable and sensitive, could come and feel safe and accepted to explore their many talents.

We are losing too many young people. The system, as it is, labels and further destroys them. People who are suffering through drug use and/or mental illness deserve respect and the option to have a quality life.

I am in the process of setting up the healing centre where these worthwhile human beings can come and be accepted and respected for who and where they are right now in their lives. If you can contribute in any way, please contact me on 9477 7872.

Colleen

PS: Joseph dedicated the following poem to me on my birthday in 1998.

Abundance

Graceful light

Sparkling wisdom

Courage beyond the darkness.

Shining bright

Your heart of gold

Embraces all that's loveless.

Never cease to achieve

Most wondrous feats

I look upon

with awestruck wonder.

Righteous deeds

You've always sought

Even amidst the times of pain.

Pure knowledge

Becomes your shelter

When life's lessons are mundane.

Serenity emanates

From within

Continuously

You are blessed beyond compare.

Strive forever

In abundance. Joseph

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News From Overseas

England

The Scale Of Drugs In Britain

Britain is becoming more sophisticated about drugs. Not only do 13 million Britons admit having taken an illegal drug at some time in their life!as our Drugs Uncovered magazine reveals today!but our assessment of the health risks has become more mature. Our poll respondents were more likely to judge tobacco high-risk than ecstasy. They also think alcohol more dangerous than cannabis.

These are remarkable findings. They reflect a collective judgment of risk that in turn reflects the nation's collective experience. The possession of largely non-addictive drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy may still be punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years, allegedly reflecting the risk they pose to society and the individual. However, the population at large no longer believes those risks to be severe.

Five million Britons admit smoking cannabis. Medical research now confirms what they believe; cannabis is safe unless used extravagantly and addictively. Even then it is less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol. At the other end of the scale, medical evidence and experience alike are united in the view that heroin and crack cocaine have powerful addictive qualities and are physically and mentally destructive. You stay away from them; and most drug users do.

In between cannabis and heroin lies a range of soft, broadly non-addictive, drugs where once again people's judgment of risk is more level-headed than the law!although here social mores run well ahead of the medical evidence. Up to a million young people regularly use ecstasy!and deaths are astonishingly rare. The same is true of cocaine. The risk for the future is that we may discover that such drugs accelerate physical complaints, notably heart conditions, and cause mental problems in later life. So far the jury is out. What we do know, however, tends to support the view that these drugs, as long as they are pure, are largely non-addictive and relatively harmless if used sensibly. The old belief that there is a predictable and linear relationship between using so-called soft drugs and progressing inevitably to hard drugs has proved unfounded.

Crime Cartels

In every Western country drug use has grown exponentially over the past 30 years. Western populations simply do not accept the legitimacy of the war on all drugs!just as the American public did not accept the legitimacy of prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. As demand steadily grows, this indiscriminate war serves only to entrench international crime cartels and create a vast offshore network of money laundering now used effectively by international terrorists and tax avoiders.

Meanwhile, drugs available on the street are of varying quality and sometimes dangerous for the user. The wide varieties of toxicity of drugs that our own reporter was able to buy highlights the way this underground business abuses its consumers! sometimes with deadly results. And because drug use is overwhelmingly the preserve of the young!more than half of Britons between 16 and 24 report drug use in our poll!it is children that are most at risk.

Equally serious, millions of young Britons now grow to adulthood holding the law in contempt. Good law reflects our social preferences; the current law does not. That so many continue to use drugs while risking such high penalties is testimony to the needs they satisfy; it is also evidence of how inadequate a deterrent the current law is.

Britain needs a comprehensive overhaul of its drug laws. In a free society, responsible adults should be permitted to exercise their liberty but this still needs to be balanced with the risks to them and the society around them. Over drug use this poses uniquely difficult trade-offs and judgments!not least because so many who make choices about drugs are the young approaching adulthood.

For them, society's obligation to educate about risks, to prohibit life-threatening temptation and to offer assistance out of addiction is even more acute.

Young People At Risk

The Government is moving; officials and Ministers with experience of cannabis in their youth are already considering its decriminalisation while taking a more intelligent approach to heroin addiction, as we also reveal today. We believe they should go further. The moment has come for legalisation of the distribution and consumption of cannabis.

We would not extend this legalisation across the gamut of non-addictive drugs yet because we are not confident that the medical risks are fully understood!and because young people with their lives ahead of them are most at risk as the heaviest users . We propose instead that possession of drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine be decriminalised. That is a halfway house, with supply still unlawful. But it is an appropriate one, which might be revised in 10 or 20 years' time. We do not believe ecstasy and cocaine use to be so menacing that it merits punitive prison sentences and a criminal record. However, we should retain the current legal penalties against drugs whose addictive powers and impact remain a threat to life. The war against heroin should remain a war. With proper focus and public support, it has a chance of being won because it is seen as legitimate.

This is far from a blanket endorsement of drug use. Cannabis should only be distributed under licence; it should not be advertised; it should be taxed; its intensity should be strictly monitored and displayed. The framework would be a tougher variant of the regime for alcohol and tobacco use.

For the range of drugs only decriminalised the penalties against trafficking would remain!but decriminalisation would permit much closer regulation of content to ensure it was not harmful. This should still be accompanied by a significant education program about potential risks.

The focus on prohibition should be on heroin and crack cocaine. However, we should also adopt a more enlightened!and much more adequately financed!approach to managing the problem. Recovery from heroin addiction should be nationally managed and supervised in a network of recuperation centres.

We believe that these recommendations reflect the centre of gravity of national opinion. Moreover, they would bring the law into line with the way we actually behave and they offer a much more exact calculus of the true risks of drugs. This prospectus would free police time, raise revenue, make drugs less unsafely impure, and continue to ban those that are truly dangerous. Above all, it would make Britain a more mature country in which to live. Now we need politicians brave enough to act.

The Observer (UK) 21/4/02

Drug Victim's Parents Back Dutch Law

The parents of heroin victim Rachel Whitear believe she would be alive today if Britain had adopted The Netherlands' more liberal approach to drug use.

Following a trip to Amsterdam, Mick and Pauline Holcroft said they were impressed by that country's openness about drugs and called for a massive overhaul of Britain's laws.

The couple, who published shocking photos of 21-year-old Rachel's body after she overdosed, also supported cannabis cafes for breaking the link between drug users and street dealers.

Following their visit to The Netherlands for an ITV1 news program the Holcrofts praised the availability of immediate help in that country for those with problems and said the same approach in Britain could save lives.

`Saddened'

Mrs Holcroft, from Withington, Herefordshire, said Britain should have learned from the Dutch approach to drugs. She said, `I have to think there's a far bigger chance that Rachel would still be with us. I'm obviously very saddened that if Rachel had had those opportunities, she may still be here.'

Mr Holcroft said, `I do honestly feel after talking to some of the experts and talking to heroin users, that there is a system in Holland that can help the families as well, and you would not feel quite so helpless.'

`Instantaneous help'

The Holcrofts said heroin users at an Amsterdam drop-in centre they visited were appalled by the circumstances in which Rachel died. The body of the former university student was discovered in a bedsit in Exmouth, Devon, three days after she overdosed in May 2000. She still had a syringe in her hand.

Mrs Holcroft said, `It was amazing meeting those people. When they needed help, it was more or less instantaneous. Certainly within two days, to be put on a program to come off it. They can't believe the circumstances under which Rachel died and were shocked by the photographs.'

Education

Rachel's parents, who have previously backed a campaign encouraging heroin users not to inject, said drugs education is a much higher priority in Dutch schools. They supported the idea of teaching children as young as nine about the dangers of drug use.

Job Arnold from the Drug User's Union in Amsterdam told them, `Recent history has shown Holland as a country that is open about drugs and drug users, and young people can see for themselves that really a lifestyle with heroin is not a very promising option.'

Despite The Netherlands' more liberal approach to drugs fewer young people use them than in Britain.

`Loving girl'

Rachel moved on to heroin after smoking cannabis and the Holcrofts believe she may never have made the jump if cannabis cafes existed in Britain.

Mrs Holcroft said, `I think the key issues are that cannabis is kept separately to other drugs. In Britain, you have dealers with cannabis in one pocket and heroin in the other. When they run out of one, they give people the other. That's how they get hooked on heroin.'

Remembering her daughter as a `very outgoing, loving girl' and added, `We couldn't help remembering Rachel on our trip, and knowing that when she wanted help, it wasn't there.'

BBC News 20/5/02

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Scotland

Prescribing Heroin `A Necessary Evil'

Prescribing heroin on the NHS may be a `necessary evil' to tackle Scotland's worsening drug addiction problem, campaigners said yesterday.

Alastair Ramsay, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, said giving GPs the authority to prescribe heroin would help drug users to access medical services for treatment and help reduce the damaging effects of drug-related crime.

His comments came as it emerged that the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee is set to recommend a network of `safe injecting areas', where addicts can use diamorphine, or medical heroin, prescribed by doctors.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has already signalled his intention to extend the prescription on heroin, allowing more licensed GPs to give out diamorphine from December this year.

Next month, he is also likely to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act so cannabis can be downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug. However, Home Office officials said there were no plans to downgrade ecstasy from a Class A drug. Mr Blunkett's former Cabinet colleague, Mo Mowlam, went further yesterday, calling on the government to have the `guts' to legalise both cannabis and ecstasy.

She told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost, `I would regulate it, make sure it's clean, how it is sold and, in addition, you could tax it.' The number of people using heroin in the UK has risen dramatically from 1,000 in 1971 to some 240,000. Despite methadone programs and special drugs courts, Scotland's heroin scourge remains high with more than 55,000 problematic drugs users.

Although classification of drugs is a reserved matter, treatment policy remains a matter for the Executive.

Mr Ramsay urged society to face the fact that we may never stamp out drug misuse. He said, `This is something which may be a necessary evil. We need to broaden the number of strategies we have for dealing with people who have got drugs problems. In the 1960s, heroin was distributed by GPs, so this is technically nothing new.'

Mr Ramsay said that there would have to be safeguards to ensure that prescribed drugs did not leak onto the black market and added protection for GPs' security.

He added, `I'm sure everybody in Scotland would like a society where drugs misuse just didn't happen, but we've got to be pretty hard-nosed about the reality. It may well be that GPs prescribing heroin may be one of the necessary evils we will have to put in place to keep drug users out of courts and stop them from breaking into our houses and our cars.'

Colin Shanks, 48, from Cranhill, Glasgow, watched as first his son and then his daughter became hooked on drugs. His son first used heroin aged 12.

He said, `I've seen the hell that comes out of heroin. I've seen my boy almost die eight times. The reality is that everything that has been tried for the last 15 years has not worked. They have been prescribing heroin in Liverpool in a trial and it seems to have a good success rate. Society would benefit because they wouldn't steal to feed their habit.'

James Doherty, Scotsman (UK) 20/5/02

New Drugs Aim To Inform Instead Of Warn

Ministers announced a major U-turn on drugs policy yesterday, rejecting the traditional Just Say No approach in favour of an information campaign explaining what drugs are and what they do.

Jim Wallace, the justice minister, conceded that telling young people not to take drugs had not worked.

Indeed, Mr Wallace claimed the inflexible approach might even have had the effect of persuading some young people to take drugs as a form of rebellion .

The new policy, Know the Score, is designed to tell parents and young people exactly what drugs do and what dangers they pose.

A series of detailed leaflets and booklets have been produced and a website set up to explain what drugs are available in Scotland, what they are known as on the street and what the effects are.

However, Mr Wallace denied that the new policy represented an admission of failure on behalf of the executive.

He said, `I would deny we are going soft but Just Say No has had little or no impact and may even have had the counter-effect.'

And he added, `They are not going to salute the flag and just do it because they are being told to do it, they will choose healthy lifestyles because they have the information, the fact-based information, that shows them that is the course to take.'

The three-pronged initiative will target dealers by confiscating their assets, rehabilitate addicts and provide information for the public to enable them to make decisions.

Welcoming the strategy, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, Alistair Ramsay, said, `Old practices like finger-wagging and sermonising on matters designed to scare young people away from drugs clearly have not worked.'

But the Tories criticised the new approach, claiming the executive had not given Just Say No a chance to succeed.

The Scottish Tory justice spokesman, Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, said, `Parents who try hard to dissuade their children from taking drugs will be dismayed at the executive's climbdown.

`Instead of sticking to the message that drug abuse is dangerous and stepping up efforts to eliminate it, the executive appears to have raised the white flag and softened its policy towards drug abuse.

`This short-sighted and irresponsible attitude sends out entirely the wrong message to our young people.'

Parents and Drugs Knowing the Score

The Know the Score literature is probably the most detailed, graphic and knowledgeable information ever put out by the government to parents on the subject of drugs.

The parents-pack does not hold anything back. It explains not just what the drugs do but what the drugs are known as on the street. The pack also tells parents how to spot the symptoms of drug abuse and what to do if their child collapses as a result of taking drugs.

The aim is to bridge the generation gap between parents and their children which often prevents parents from communicating properly about drugs.

In one concise piece of advice to parents, it states, `There's nothing worse for a teenager than a parent who tries to be cool or hip when we almost certainly don't know the name of the latest drug.' It recommends asking questions, listening and then giving advice rather than lecturing.

The pack divides the available drugs into stimulants (MDMA, cocaine and amyl nitrates), depressants (heroin, methadone and solvents) and hallucinogens (LSD, cannabis and magic mushrooms), explaining each one in detail.

For instance, it explains how ecstasy, or MDMA, is known as E, love hearts, doves, rhubarb and custard and disco burger, and that it is sold in white or brown tablets or capsules.

It sets out the legal penalties for possession and dealing in each case and offers First Aid advice and support-centre telephone numbers.

The passage on LSD shows the sort of information which the executive wants to get across to parents.

It states, `Acid is normally sold in small amounts which have been soaked into blotting paper printed with various designs. When a person takes it they have hallucinations.

`The way they see, hear and feel the world around them changes both at the time of taking the drug and in the form of flashbacks afterwards.'

Hamish Macdonell, Scotsman (UK) 20/3/02

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Ireland

Families Torn Apart By Tough Anti-Drug Act

Tough anti-drugs legislation is pulling families apart, a conference heard yesterday. Traumatised parents are being forced to either kick their addict son or daughter out of the family home or be evicted themselves.

`Parents are having to evict their own children, putting them out on the streets. This is putting them through unimaginable trauma,' said Cathal Holland, a community development worker in Ballymun, Dublin.

`Families are being torn apart and parents are living with extreme guilt, because once a kid is put out of the home they are lost to the family.'

Speaking at a two-day conference organised by the Citywide Family Support Network, Mr Holland said parents struggling with addiction were already carrying an enormous burden. `They are trying to come to terms with their child's addiction and trying to access services. This legislation is just pilling misery on top of misery.'

Under The Housing Act 1997, local authorities can evict an individual from their home because of anti-social behaviour, which includes drug dealing.

Mr Holland said the heroin addicts being evicted are low level dealers and mainly supply drugs in order to feed their habit.

`After they're kicked out, the addicts, some of whom are as young as 17, sleep wherever they can,' he said. `They go to B&Bs, sleep in skips, or with friends for a couple of nights. But they're very vulnerable.'

He said that eviction should only be used if all other attempts fail. `It's something that should be used as a last resort, but it's just being used too quickly and too forcefully.'

He pointed out that in Ballymun addicts have to wait six months to get on a treatment program. He said the work of the social inclusion units in Dublin City Council should be developed more and used as an alternative to evictions.

A spokesman for Dublin City Council explained that there were no figures for the number of children of parents excluded from corporation flats or houses.

He said eviction figures only related to those who are the actual legal tenants, as named in the tenancy agreement!in this case, the parents. These figures show that three tenants had been evicted so far this year for anti-social behaviour, compared to 14 in 2001 and 14 in 2000.

He stressed that evictions were only a last resort.

Cormac O'Keeffe, Irish Examiner 27/4/02

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The Netherlands

There's Nothing Soft About Dutch Drugs Policy

From a speech by a Dutch government drugs adviser at the Cannabis: Shaping a New Agenda conference, held in Liverpool

To understand Dutch drug policy it is essential to know something of the Netherlands, as policies are in keeping with the characteristics and culture of the country that produces them. The Dutch have a strong belief in individual freedom and in the division between `church' (in other words, morality) and state. We believe in pragmatism and have a strong sense of responsibility for collective welfare. Our administrative system is decentralised to the local authorities to a large extent, particularly where drug policy is concerned.

These characteristics are reflected in our present drug policy, which was formulated in the mid-Seventies. A wide range of addict-care facilities is available. Dutch policy does not moralise, but is based on the assumption that drug use is a fact and must be dealt with as practically as possible. Our most important objective is to prevent, or to limit, the risks and harm associated with drug use, both to the user himself and to his environment. Because of this, the Ministry of Health is responsible for coordinating drug policy.

Many people think that drugs are legally available in the Netherlands and that we make no effort to combat the supply side of the drug market. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is continual intensive co-operation between the addict-care system, the judicial authorities and the public administrators. With the exception of small-scale cannabis dealing in coffee shops, since 1976, tackling all other forms of drug dealing and production has high priority.

Cannabis use in the Netherlands, as in all other countries, has increased in recent years and the age at which users start has gradually decreased. There are, however, signs that cannabis use is stabilising and even decreasing in the Netherlands. The trend towards increased use and the present scale of use are comparable with those in the surrounding countries of Germany, France and Belgium and certainly lower than those in the UK and the US.

Thanks to a high standard of care and prevention, including the large-scale dispensation of methadone and clean hypodermics, the number of hard drug (heroin or cocaine) addicts, stabilised about 10 years ago, at the level of 2.5 per 1,000 inhabitants. This means that the Netherlands is among the three countries, after Finland and Germany, with the smallest number of problem addicts in the European Union. Although not an ideal policy, bearing in mind our objective of harm limitation, our drugs policy is reasonably successful.

Coffee shop policy is administered locally. Many of the petty criminal problems surrounding the coffee shops can be traced back to the fact that local administrators and police did not really know how the policy should be pursued. Hardly surprising since the coffee shops are still operating in an administrative no-man's land. Sales of cannabis `at the front door' are not legal, but they are tolerated. However, purchases `at the back door' do not fall under this policy of tolerance. In practice, this means that the coffee shop owner is forced to buy the cannabis on the illegal market. Therefore something that is forbidden is nonetheless tolerated. The mayors, police chiefs and politicians continue to support the concept and there is debate now about allowing a system of cultivation of cannabis to supply a limited number of coffee shops.

Closing the coffee shops would certainly lead to an increase in dealing on the streets, in private homes and in school playgrounds. This would undoubtedly be accompanied by hard drug sales, while the rate of use among the population would not decline, bearing in mind the figures for use in other countries.

Bob Keizer, Independent (UK) 25/2/02

Dutch Back Free Heroin For Addicts

The Netherlands took a highly controversial step towards liberalising already lax drug laws yesterday when the government came out in favour of giving free heroin to addicts.

Encouraged by five-year trials on addicts in six of the country's largest cities, the government formally asked parliament to endorse proposals to hand out heroin, in combination with methadone, to addicts deemed `beyond help'.

The plans have caused disquiet among some sections of society, where sceptics feel that heroin addicts will receive better `treatment' than many people who suffer from problems that are not self-inflicted.

One media source said, `Some people have made the point that patients suffering from cancer cannot access the necessary expensive treatment but that drug addicts will be able to get free heroin and many believe that it isn't fair.'

A year's supply of heroin for one person would cost the Dutch government 9,350!about 25 per day. There are about 25,000 addicts in the Netherlands, but only 2,000 of these are thought to be hardcore addicts.

The health minister, Els Borst, said that the cost of feeding addicts' habits will be offset by savings on medical treatment, prison space and law enforcement. And she stressed that they will need to meet strict criteria before they can use the scheme, which is expected to begin this year once it gets parliament's backing.

Under the pilot schemes!set up in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Utrecht, Groningen and Heerlen!the conditions for taking part are stringent. Participants, who must be aged at least 25, are required to have been addicts for five years and to have tried a methadone program. Their life expectancy must be less than one year.

The nationwide program will not be quite so strict, according to the health ministry. But it will be for hardcore addicts only.

`We are talking about the really hopeless cases here,' a spokeswoman from the health ministry said yesterday. `This is the last resort.'

If parliament approves the scheme, the Netherlands will once again lead EU nations when it comes to liberal drugs laws.

The move, which comes three years after Switzerland began handing out heroin to addicts, could trigger a wave of similar initiatives in Europe.

Andrew Osborn, Guardian (UK) 14/3/02

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Denmark

Cannabis Showdown in Christiania

After years of politicians and police turning a blind eye, the government is now demanding the immediate cessation of the multi-million kroner illegal cannabis trade in the `free state' of Christiania.

Although the Social Democratic-led government introduced far-reaching legislation last summer that provided the police with the authority to immediately close down the hundreds of small `hash-clubs' dotting the city's landscape, the sale of myriad types of hash and marijuana on `Pusher Street' in Christiania has continued to flourish.

One dealer recently estimated that the ubiquitous stalls have a daily turnover of anything between DKK 500,000 and 1 million.

Conservative Party spokesman Helge Adam Moller is now demanding a reworking of the politically agreed `framework' for Christiania, which will give Christiana residents three weeks to get rid of all drugs and drug dealers in Christiania, or risk an annulment of the law that has allowed the old `hippy' community to live in relative peace from the authorities for the past thirty years.

`We can no longer tolerate the illegal and open cannabis trade that has become a part of everyday life out there,' said Moller, `If Christiania is to be allowed to survive, then it has to become as law abiding as every other community in Denmark!and if it doesn't, then we'll close it down.'

A spokesperson for Christiania, Britta Lillesoe, called the latest attack on Christiania a typical `knee-jerk reaction' from right-wing politicians. `Instead of trying to criminalise the many thousands of customers who enjoy hash every day, why don't they consider legalising it instead,' said Lillesoe, who has often organised meetings on the public's perception of the drug.

However, despite residents' constant claims that the free and open sale of cannabis helps to prevent users being tempted by `harder' drugs, Christiania continues to suffer from rumours of biker gangs distributing heroin within its walls, and as late as last week was the scene of a violent `showdown' between cannabis traders and young immigrants attempting to gain a foothold in the attractive multi-million kroner market.

For the first time in many years, Parliament will begin to discuss the thorny issue of Christiania next month.

Howard R Knowles, Copenhagen Post 8/3/02

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USA

Traffickers Turn To Child Mules

She could have been any five-year-old packed off by her mother to relatives for a holiday.

But customs inspectors are trained not to trust appearances, especially when a child, travelling alone on the 5 hour Avianca Airlines flight from Colombia to New York, arrives carrying two solid-frame cases.

An inspector looked in the first bag, which appeared to have a false side, and found about 1kg of white powder that tested positive for heroin.

The girl, whose grandmother and aunt live in New York, was blissfully unaware of what was going on, appearing unconcerned that strangers were looking through her luggage. She does not know that she is now regarded as the youngest drug mule used by traffickers.

Customs agent Joe Webber said, `Sending a five-year-old girl alone on a plane to smuggle heroin represents a new low, even for drug traffickers.'

The girl, a US citizen whose name has been suppressed, was born to the business.

Her father is awaiting sentence in a federal jail for heroin trafficking. Her mother, who customs investigators say admits packing the bag, was deported in 1996 after trying to smuggle heroin through Miami. The child has been placed with foster parents in New York.

City child welfare authorities have filed a petition of neglect against the mother, who lives in Bogota. She has been summonsed to appear in court in May but customs investigators aren't holding their breath for her to step on a US-bound plane.

It was the worst possible timing to send a drug mule, however young, through New York's JFK airport.

Susan Mitchell, port director for JFK, said customs had been on high alert since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

`There is a heightened level of scrutiny on all passengers and that has certainly translated into significant increases in drug interdiction,' she said. `We do consider flights from Colombia to be high risk.'

Drug rings employ children as drug mules because they will not go to jail and if caught will not be able to pass on much information to authorities. Adult mules often use babies as props but the use of solo children on flights is becoming more common as traffickers look for ways to beat customs.

The interception of the five-year-old girl comes a week after 12-year-old Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu flew into JFK after swallowing 87 heroin-filled condoms. The boy, who was caught only after falling ill, was reportedly offered $1,900 by Nigerian drug dealers to carry the drugs.

Rodney Dalton, The Australian 27!28/4/02

Dare To Change

The American public supports a tough stance on drugs, even though it doesn't work. The only way things can change is if the media start confronting some unpalatable facts, says Maia Szalavitz.

To outsiders, it will seem shockingly narrow-minded. At a conference on drug abuse last year, sponsored by the US government's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, a speaker was shouted down and told to `Shut the fuck up'.

Her crime? Simply saying that government anti-drugs funds should go only to programs based on methods that have been shown to work, and for suggesting that a popular scheme called Girl Talk wasn't one of them. Only the conservative media thought the incident worth mentioning: the woman who had been silenced was a noted conservative.

But for anyone following the debate over US drugs policy, intolerance of dissent will be depressingly familiar. Lack of respect for research is an endemic problem in this area. It is not helped by the media, whose uncritical support for anything that claims to be `anti-drugs' only encourages the proliferation of ineffective and expensive programs.

Girl Talk promotes the idea that helping girls achieve more in traditionally `masculine' areas makes them less likely to use drugs. Yet since boys are at least twice as likely to use drugs as girls, this notion is questionable, and there isn't a shred of independent research to back it up.

The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program is an even bigger scandal, if only because it operates on such a large scale. DARE is conducted by police officers in 80 per cent of American schools. Children are taught that all drugs!including alcohol and tobacco!are equally harmful and given tips on the best ways to `just say no'.

In the past Glenn Levant, the program's founder, regularly demonised researchers for faulting his program, calling their work `voodoo science' and accusing them of `kicking Santa Claus' and `setting out to find ways to attack our programs'.

But a year ago he changed his tune. The government, embarrassed over the absence of any sound data supporting DARE, threatened to withdraw funding. No published, peer-reviewed study has found that DARE reduces drug use among adolescents, while several have indicated increased use among participants. Yet it took more than 18 years and a dozen solid negative studies of thousands of children before the point hit home.

More remarkable still, at the same time that Levant was reflecting on the ineffectiveness of his program, he announced that he'd received a $13.7 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to revamp it. DARE is so deeply entrenched in so many schools, that the foundation decided it would be better not to start from scratch.

The media's ambivalent attitude towards DARE surely influenced its decision. Just weeks before Levant's announcement, a reporter from the Long Island-based tabloid Newsday, one of the largest local newspapers in the US, summed up the DARE debate in the following way, `Different camps cite conflicting studies, some indicating that DARE is effective and some that it isn't.' If Newsday had done a five-second Web search to check both sides' citations, it would have found that the real data supports only one position.

Most newspapers treat research as just another partisan voice. One Iowa paper wrote in September, `Most of the studies that have questioned DARE's effectiveness show that the message does not last!that those students who receive DARE as their only lesson on drug abuse have forgotten the message by the time they hit high school. That doesn't mean it isn't effective as a starting point.' Sounds like addict logic to me: if it's not working, try more.

It gets worse. Consider DARE's basic premise!that police officers should teach children about drugs. Teenagers mistrust authority figures on this subject, and are more likely to heed peers or adults whom they know! something social scientists have understood for years.

DARE is now taught to 10 and 11-year-olds, who compete eagerly for DARE shirts and praise from its officers. But the revamped DARE will run in high school, where teenagers' interests in DARE paraphernalia is more likely to be ironic. It's sure to raise a laugh at raves. Yet a major foundation has agreed to fund yet more research!and still no one asks why.

There's a deeper problem here. The government's position that drug use is always harmful is scientifically dubious. Unfortunately, a 1994 law lays down that federally funded prevention programs must have a strict `no use' message. This effectively blocks any significant change of tactics even outside DARE.

Political change will be needed before anti-drugs efforts can begin to improve. To stimulate this change there needs to be better research and reporting. The quality British press, for example, has been far more sceptical of anti-drugs crusaders; and Britain has better drugs policies to show for it. The British government has been funding needle-exchange programs for drug addicts since 1988, as a way to limit the spread of HIV. The US government has still not managed to do anything similar, despite scientific support from every major concerned body.

What sounds good isn't necessarily what works. Two major reviews of existing data on drugs prevention programs!one American, one British !have found that there is no known program that actually cuts illegal drug use. After billions of dollars and over three decades, not one has had a significant and lasting effect. So why not test alternatives?

It may be time to try programs aimed at reducing the harm drugs do, rather than their use. It may be possible to cut addiction and overdose rates. But we'll never know unless American journalists hold the largest funder of drugs research in the world!the US government!accountable.

So here's an appeal to American reporters: start to confront your biases and those of your audience, and make the effort to understand the science. Dare to follow the data, not the crowd.

Maia Szalavitz is co-author of `Recovery Options: The Complete Guide' (Wiley, 2000) and writes regularly on science and drugs policy.

Maia Szalavitz, New Scientist (UK) 2/2/02

  

Canada

Sniffer Dog Find Gets Boy Booted

OTTAWA: A 15-year-old boy has been kicked out of school for two days on a drug dog's say-so.

Christopher Laurin was suspended because an Ottawa police dog indicated it smelled marijuana on his ski jacket during an surprise lockdown drug search Tuesday at a high school in suburban Orleans.

Laurin had no drugs on him.

The principal says she could not smell marijuana on Laurin's coat, but the dog's word proved final.

Police and school staff told the student that police dogs can smell lingering marijuana residue on clothing up to three months after the fact. Laurin's parents are furious.

`How come the school is allowed to punish my son because a drug-sniffing dog smelled marijuana? He didn't have any drugs on his jacket. He didn't do anything wrong. What if he had left his coat in someone's car, and that person had a joint?' asked Michel Laurin, Chris's father. `I know they're trying to do the right thing, but suspension for a coat? he said. `I don't believe the implications this could have.'

His father said the school told him, `It's school policy.'

Winnipeg Sun 28/3/02

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Detached

detached detached

what happened to detached?

It must have been despatched

I don't know where it got to

or how or why or when

all I know is that the answer

is too hard for me to ken

I simply live each day

hoping for the best

experiencing the worst

more often than I'd like to

pointless to question why

this is my lot

pointless to ask when

it's going to stop

you might as well ask

the ferris wheel

to stop turning

yearning

for an end

to days, endless days

of misery, doubt, shame

and abuse

What's the use?

Give me boundaries any day

boundaries to help me work and play

boundaries that let me know

what is yours and what is mine

boundaries that are predictable

structured safe and desirable

where did they go, those boundaries

Over the past few months, years

years metered out in days

days in hours, minutes in tears

Days of anguish

days of giving

with no living

to speak of E A Freeman

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Needle Van To Get The Chop

Source: Northern District Times 24/4/02

The needle exchange van at Ryde Hospital is closing its doors because of community pressure. State Member for Ryde John Watkins said the Health Department had been instructed to close the van.

The local community would be fully consulted if or when any future needle exchange service was established in the locality. `The State government has responded to community concerns about this needle exchange van. The van will now close and any further facility will be in full consultation with the community, not made without their input. This is a good result that recognises the wishes and concerns of local people.'

One month ago, Mr Watkins asked the Health Minister Craig Knowles to relocate a needle exchange program operating adjacent to Ryde Public School, following reports of children playing with discarded syringes.

Although that service was closed, a needle exchange program opened from a van in the grounds of Ryde Hospital.

`The local community should have been consulted before the van began operating,' Mr Watkins said. `Health authorities have now acknowledged a mistake was made in not talking to local residents. I am pleased to report to the local community that the van will close.'

State Member for Epping and Opposition Police Spokesman Andrew Tink said unofficial police reports indicated a possible link between increased break-ins in Ryde and the hospital's needle exchange van.

`It's news to me that there's a demand for needle exchange,' Mr Tink said. `I never thought that intravenous drug use was a big problem in the area, so why was it opened in the first place? And why wasn't there community consultation?'

Eastwood Local Area Command Superintendent Frank Mennilli said he would not be able to comment on a possible link of the needle exchange to crime. `We have not done crime analysis in the area,' he said.

Family Drug Support Chief Executive Officer Tony Trimingham said the service was not just about needle exchange; it provided counselling and support.

`The incident that brought this to attention a few weeks ago was a non-event,' Mr Trimingham said. `Those kids found an empty pack and it wasn't from the centre.'

Mr Trimingham said there was drug use in the Ryde area. `We get more calls from the Ryde and Parramatta area than any other part of Australia,' he said. `It's to help their families and the community. It's just dirty politics, it's preying on the normal concerns of the community, and they are entitled to be but there is no basis for their concern.'

Mr Trimingham is concerned that removing the service would lead to improper disposal and more needles being shared. `It's frightening,' he said. `It's a knee-jerk reaction.'

Mr Trimingham said that Superintendent Mennilli was to be commended for stating the reality of the situation.

Needles can be exchanged at local chemists at a cost.

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Drug Use Monitoring In Australia

2000 Annual Report On Drug Use

Among Police Detainees!Part 2

Summary by Evan Thomas

Illicit Drug Use and Self-Reported Criminal Activity

50% of all adult detainees (both sexes) reported that they had been arrested on a prior occasion in the past 12 months. 22% of all adults reported that they had done time during the past 12 months. Most adult males were likely to test positive to drug use regardless of the charge.

The rates testing positive to cannabis will be higher than for other drugs as the test can detect use up to 30 days, benzos up to 14 days, and other drugs use within the last two to four days.

37% said that they had sold illegal drugs at some time.

DUMA uses the following classification of offences:

1. Violent

2. Property

3. Drugs

4. Drink driving

5. Traffic

Where the detainee has been charged with more than one offence, the most serious is the one recorded here.

Adult Male Detainees

Violent charge (19% of detainees): Percentage who tested positive!

Property charges (most serious charge)

Drug offences (most serious charge)

Drink driving offences (most serious charge)

Traffic offences (most serious charge)

Disorder offences (most serious charge)

Breaches (people detailed for outstanding warrants)

The 2000 Annual Report continues with pieces about alcohol use and the Juvenile Data, plus comprehensive statistical data.

Reference

Australian Institute of Criminology Research and Public Policy Series No. 37 by Toni Makkai and Kiah McGregor, AIC, GPO Box 2994, Canberra ACT 2601. www.aic.gov.au

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A Sad Letter

I'm writing about my daughter Susan aged 38 years, now in heaven, hopefully at peace away from the hell and torment of drugs. She died on 23 December 2001. I tried so many times to help her, but as time went by it was all up to her. When she came home from prison in February 2001, I hoped she'd realise the situation she was in and decide to leave drugs alone for the sake of her four-year-old daughter.

Over the next few weeks I knew she was on drugs again. I'd come home and find her asleep because of drugs.

One night I came home and she was out to it with the needle still where she injected herself. I removed the needle and closed the door crying and I hoped she would go to heaven and be at peace. But she came out of it a couple of hours later. We had a terrible argument. Susan then decided to try Naltrexone. I gave her back the needles, pills, etc. because I knew she'd only go and get more. I told her, `It will kill you one day Susan, you'll never reach 50, I doubt you'll see 40 and I know you'll never see your little girl grow up, but its your life, I can't help you any more.' She just looked at me and took them back.

Susan and her little girl moved into their own place. I worried myself sick. Then one night she came to my house at 11pm to leave her little girl. She was not herself and looked awful. I cried and we argued; I hit her, she hit me back, knocked me down and kicked me. After I got up, I tried to push her out of my house. She grabbed my throat and squeezed so hard I began choking. She let me go and I managed to shut the door. Her little girl saw it all and was crying. I comforted her and held her close to me.

More weeks went by, then I rang my grand-daughter because I missed her so much. I spoke only a few words to Susan. It was close to Susan's birthday. Susan turned 38 on 14 December. I never sent her a card or wished her a Happy Birthday.

Then on 21 December, Susan visited friends. I received a phone call from my grand-daughter's Dad to say that Susan hadn't come home and he was out looking for her. He brought my grand-daughter over so he could keep looking. He brought a present and two Christmas cards from Susan for me. I said, `I'll open them on Christmas Day,' And in my heart I knew that Susan would not be here on Christmas Day. He left to go looking for her.

Then a while later the phone rang. It was my granddaughter's father ringing to say he was at Susan's and she had come home. He found her on the bathroom floor and rang the ambulance. He said she had no pulse and it didn't look good. My heart was racing and I knew she was gone. When he came to my house he picked his daughter up and held her crying. I never cried, I was so angry. When I went to the hospital to see her, I still never cried, I just wanted to hit her. I told her she was a silly girl who wouldn't listen. I stroked her face and kissed her, she looked so peaceful.

On Saturday 22 December, I had an argument with my granddaughter's father. I said a terrible thing, `I hope when they find her she's dead so my granddaughter doesn't have to look at her ugly mother'. My terrible words came true the very next day. I still never cried, I had to stay strong for everyone else. I spent Christmas Day at Parklea Prison to tell my son that his sister had died. He hadn't seen her for four years. He is in prison because of drugs also. He was allowed to come to her funeral.

My granddaughter went to her Mum's funeral. Father Paul said she should go to say goodbye. I wasn't so sure but I changed my mind and now I'm glad she went because she's not waiting for her Mum to come home.

She says, `My Mummy's sleeping in a red box and is with the angels in the sky.' One day she will be able to know the truth and I pray that she will grow up to be a good girl. It makes me sad that she has to grow up without her Mum, but I will always be there for her and I love her very much and I love Susan my first born child.

Judith F

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Letter to Minolta

Garry Valenzisi 2 May 2002

National Logistics Manager

Minolta Business Equipment

Chatswood

Dear Garry,

Thank you so much from all at Family Drug Support for the photocopier which has been installed this week at our office. It will enable us to put to more practical use the funds previously spent on photocopying.

Because of the media's negative reporting of drug issues, it is difficult for our organisation to attract support from the community, particularly the business community. However, thanks to companies such as Minolta, FDS will be able to continue to provide a much needed service to the families of those who are adversely affected by their drug abuse.

Thank you to all at Minolta who have been involved in this generous donation.

Yours sincerely,

Sandra Burke (volunteer)

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Joy

There's joy surpassing all the Joys,

for which we're apt to yearn.

But those who have missed its ecstasy,

have something yet to learn.

'Tis only known to those who feel the very depths of life,

Who plodding through this weary world

have met with woe or strife.

The many superficial things encountered on the way

may fill an idle moment up or make a pleasant day.

But when I think about it all, I feel a little sad

for all the folk who've yet to learn how contrasts make you glad.

The JOY that I refer to is the aftermath of Pain

when all the sting has ebbed away and LIFE grows sweet again.

Lorrie

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Elly's Reviews

Video Reviews

BLOW

Director: Ted Demme

With Ted Demme's death, age 38, at the beginning of this year, Blow is a fitting epitaph. The subject of the film, George Jung, is the man who brought deluge supplies of cocaine to America in the seventies and eighties. The film is a journey from unhappy childhood, dominated by bickering parents and a mother preoccupied with money, through hotshot drug trafficker, to betrayal and jail. George Jung is incarcerated until 2015.

Johnny Depp invests the character of George Jung with humanity. He is the hick boy who comes to town to attend Crime School, gaining his Bachelor of Marijuana, graduating with a Doctorate in Cocaine, a market-driven narcotic sponsored by the lovely Noriega who directs some deft money laundering.

Ray Liotta is the hen-pecked husband, the affectionate father who never wavers in his love for his son. Rachel Griffiths is the shrewish mother and Penelope Cruz is Jung's wife who spends her entire screen time screeching. The women in the film are the least likeable characters. Were all the women in Jung's life so awful (even his first L.A. love is a `baddie' who inducts him into `the scene')? Or are the unempathetic women the film's big flaw?

Demme was drawn to Jung's story after reading the book, Blow, by Richard Porter, about the boy who grew up relatively poor and resolved to make his fortune. His goal was realised when he befriended Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in the seventies and was the first to import cocaine into the United States, becoming popular and wealthy. Blow delivers a story that could have happened to anyone, given the right petrie dish.

CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL

Director: John Stockwell

American teenage angst movies are usually worth being left on the video shelf. Not so Crazy/Beautiful, guilty of excellent narrative, perspective and acting.

Kirsten Dunst gives a marvellous portrayal of a hurting, misbehaving teenager attracted to a Mexican boy (Jay Hernandez) trying to scale the disadvantages of his background.

Nicole is a pretty, drinking, drug-taking, wild school truant from an exceptionally well-off and well-connected family. She has deep-seated, unresolved issues that no-one seems to know how, or care enough, to address. She crosses paths with Carlos, a clean-living, honest, ambitious, clever boy from the wrong side of town. In an unusual turnaround, especially for an American film, Nicole's dysfunctional family accept and embrace Carlos, while his single mother, siblings and extended family are suspicious of Nicole and question her motives. The denouement of the story hinges on families communicating.

Like Virgin Suicides, also featuring Kirsten Dunst, this film is more akin to James Dean's youth anguish movies, East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, than other contemporary attempts.

Crazy/Beautiful is not to be bypassed. The performances of the two young leads are enough to recommend a viewing.

Book Review

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

by Chris Masters

publ: ABC Books

Chris Masters is the senior reporter on Four Corners, Australia's longest-running public affairs TV program, distinguished by its integrity and bringing to light stories that have effected change in our communities. Not for Publication consists of the stories that did not make it to air for various reasons.

Chris Masters explains why the stories were unaired, using each to reveal another aspect of investigative journalism. Names and specific circumstances have been changed and camouflaged for protection purposes (also explained in detail).

Most of the stories are interesting. However, I feel Mr Masters is cautiously holding back much more than he reveals which creates an unsatisfying experience, as if the reader is being denied `closure'. This, I think, is a shared experience with the author. The stand-out story for me is The Snapper about an unethical freelance photographer in Bosnia.

Chris Masters writes as if he is talking to his reader. There are no literary flourishes, he is candidly, straightforwardly discussing investigative journalism and the ethics behind what is presented to the public. He explores the relationship of public and media and declares: . . . the public should demand better of us. He says that the principal partners in the communication business, the media and the public, are failing to communicate.

Not for Publication is as much a revelation of Chris Masters, the man and the journalist, as it is a presentation of unfilmed stories. The author is still carrying the scars of his 13-year litigation battle over The Moonlight State, the Four Corners program that exposed systematic corruption in the Queensland police force. He devotes his last chapter to that particular saga.

Everyone should buy, and read, a copy of Not for Publication. Ethical, brave investigative journalists like Chris Masters merit our full support and understanding.

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Memorial Corner

To remember loved one's who have lost their lives to illicit drugs. Please go to the Memorial page here.

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Family Support Meetings

Non-religious, open meetings for family members affected by drugs and alcohol. Open to anyone and providing opportunities to talk and listen to others in a non-judgemental, safe environment. Current locations information, please click here.

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Information/Education Nights

Refresher night for FDS volunteers on the telephone service. Please click here for more info.

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Need Help?

Please click here.

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