Carr calls on PM for summit on drugs

By DAVID HUMPHRIES, State Political Correspondent

The Premier, Mr Carr, yesterday increased pressure for a national
summit on drugs by writing to the Prime Minister urging him to turn
a November meeting of police ministers into a heads of government
council.

Mr Carr said the summit, which would be the first on drugs for 12
years, should focus on issues of supply and demand for heroin, now
less expensive than "a slab of beer".

Meanwhile the Federal Government was cutting the Customs budget and
limiting the chances of detecting heroin imports.

"Customs officers agree that Australia has gained an international
reputation for our "open ports', making us a ready target for
overseas drug dealers," Mr Carr said.

Threefifths of the 550 Australians who died each year from heroin
overdoses were in NSW, where heroin was "cheap and accessible on
our streets", he said.

The Premier's call for a national plan of action was supported by
spokesmen for the chief nongovernment organisations fighting the
drug problem, but he faces an uphill battle in convincing the
Federal Government.

The Federal Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, has frequently and
recently rejected the need for a national drugs summit, arguing
that national strategies already are in place and that further
discussions would be pointless without suggestions of new
solutions.

Mr Carr, however, claimed optimism. "I think he [Mr Howard] would
be supportive. We've got to acknowledge there is goodwill across
the spectrum on this. We're all distressed by the evidence of what
this is doing to the fabric of our society."

Mr Wesley Noffs, of the Ted Noffs Foundation, said yesterday that
the drugs problem had diminished in political importance over the
past five years and antidrug efforts had been characterised by a
historical lack of coordination.

"Nongovernment and government agencies in NSW, I believe, fully
support the Premier's call for a national forum," Mr Noffs said.

Major Brian Watters, of the Salvation Army, said the recent public
debate on the ACT heroin trial proposal "provided a wonderful
opportunity now for galvanising the energy of the country to deal
with this scourge".

The Rev Bill Crews, an antidrugs campaigner based in the inner
west, said: "This is probably the first chance in a decade for
everyone to get together to work out something sensible."

Mr Tony Framingham, whose son died of a heroin overdose, said his
group had been calling for a national summit for months. Community
groups should be involved, he said.

Mr Carr said he wanted solutions which would unite the different
groups in the drugs debate. "We've had a debate in which people put
forward different views about a heroin trial in the ACT," Mr Carr
said. "I want to go beyond that debate now and unite the country
behind a program of action."

He said the approach must "tackle supply and demand" while
"exploring every new option for detoxification and rehabilitation".