'SCARE TACTICS WON'T WORK WITH DRUGS'

Experts today warned that using scare tactics to deter young people from
using party drugs could backfire.

Paul Dillon, information officer at the National Drug and Alcohol Research
Centre, said it was important to get a quality message out to young people,
that was also believable.

"Many young people, because of the way that we do speak about drugs, we use
scare tactics, we try to frighten them, they don't necessarily believe all
we tell them," Mr Dillon told reporters.

"That's what we have to try to work out, what messages are we trying to get
across."

Another issue that needed to be examined was the belief that providing
drugs information amounted to condoning the use of the substance.

The Australian Medical Authority (AMA) is hosting a drug summit in Canberra
today, bringing together doctors and other health experts, nightclub owners
and drug users.

AMA president Kerryn Phelps said it was necessary to discuss ways to
minimise the harm associated with drug usage, particularly as a growing
youth dance culture had led to an increase in the use of drugs such as
ecstasy, LSD and speed.

"While marijuana is the most popular illicit drug by far, there is an
emerging trend of an increasing use of psychostimulants," she said.

"One of the important issues for health workers is that we don't know what
are the associated health risks from taking many of these drugs."

Over the past 10 years, there have been about 20 deaths associated with the
use of ecstasy.

"Death is not necessarily the consequence of using these drugs," Mr Dillon
said.

"There are a range of other harms that we should be looking at."

International research had shown that ecstasy could lead to long-term
damage of the brain and problems such as depression.

Dr Phelps said it was not possible to tell if there was a safe level of
party drug use due to the unpredictable content of some drugs on the street.

"There is emerging evidence that drugs that many of the users consider are
probably safe in the short-term may have adverse long-term effects," she said.