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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2270 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

However, despite the continuing efforts of many community groups and individuals, there is still widespread belief that illicit drug dependence is a crime issue. There is still the unfortunately popular but considerably mistaken belief that the way to deal with the drug problem is to get tougher on crime. Tougher sentences, tougher laws, more police, stricter customs and zero tolerance are continually peddled as solutions. Let me stress: they are not solutions.

Decades of law enforcement solutions have failed miserably to make any appreciable difference to the control of illicit substances in multiple countries. Yet governments, including our own federal government, continue to push the argument that giving more resources to law enforcement will actually work. We must look for alternatives, and at least in this Assembly I believe that the message is getting through that illegal drug use is primarily a health issue and should be treated as such.

A number of members have previously stated that, although our thinking is starting to change on these issues, we do not talk about them often enough. I hope that this MPI goes some way to continuing the debate we must have.

The Australian Democrats have long advocated a harm minimisation approach to drug policy. Drugs harm in many ways. They include harm to the health of the user, even causing death; economic harm to the user and others affected by drug-related activity; social harm to families; drug-related violence or criminal stigma; and harm through public nuisance and drug-related crime.

We need to take a holistic approach that encompasses education, prevention, early intervention and continuing support for drug users. This needs to be done in a strategic and coordinated process so that people have continuing support available in different situations and at different stages. This means government needs to take responsibility for providing these services.

There are still too few support mechanisms in our community to ensure that drug-affected people have the resources and encouragement to get the assistance they require. Our rehabilitation clinics are full and, even after leaving rehabilitation, many drug users continue to find themselves homeless, jobless and friendless and end up relapsing, often out of despair. Co-ordination across the social service sector is required for harm minimisation policies to work effectively.

Despite the drawn-out public debate on supervised injecting facilities and the oft-mentioned heroin trial, we are still no closer to implementing these alternative strategies to combat drug dependence than we were when they were first proposed. The terrible consequences for the health of drug users continue to be highlighted by medical research. Drug use may result in mental health problems, including schizotypal illness, depression, brain injury and reduced memory and learning abilities. It may also result in other physical injury, including increased risk of bronchitis and respiratory diseases; circulatory dysfunction, including heart disease; liver cirrhosis; and a host of other ailments.

Injecting drug users have a drastically elevated occurrence of blood poisoning, tetanus, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. In addition, the incidence of car accidents, personal, sexual and domestic violence and abuse, and suicide is elevated under the influence of

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