The general population, drug users and service providers want a controlled trial in Canberra to give heroin to addicts, but the police are against it, according to survey results published in the latest issue of Criminology Australia.
The survey was done after a committee of the ACT Legislative Assembly recommended it.
It showed 66 per cent of the community was in favour and 27 per cent against with 7 per cent don’t knows. Service providers were 71-19-9 and drug users 76-14-10. Police, however, responded the other way with 31 in favour, 63 against and 7 don’t knows.
The survey was of 1100 people, the bulk of them in the general community (random phone selection) and police.
The results were published in an article by Gabriele subs correct) Bammer, of the ANU’s National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health. In the magazine which is put out quarterly by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Dr Bammer cited the disadvantages of the trial as: wrong message, especially to children; work and traffic accidents; no incentive to give up and possibly an increase in users. She cited the advantages as reductions in: HIV, crime, dealing, corruption, use, costs of policing, prisons and courts, and improved health, well-being and lifestyle of addicts.
She cited some legal-political problems which could be overcome: Australia’s international obligations, Commonwealth prohibitions on importing heroin, ACT legislation.
The first stage of research had revealed a trial was feasible in principle and that research should move to the next step to work out the logistics of the trial, she said. A final conclusion about whether to go ahead could be made by mid-1993.
Stage 2 research would look at the number of users, the known effects of the drugs, general drug habits in the ACT, economic analysis, a survey on the victims of crime and analysis of the ACT drug market.
Dr Bammer said the ACT Government continued to be cautious, but had given support for important aspects of the Stage 2 process. That research would be useful whether or not went ahead.
The Australian Institute of Criminology, which is involved in this research and national research on crime and Aboriginal deaths in custody, is ear-marked for abolition under Fightback, saving a Coalition Government $4 million a year.
Dr Bammer said the amount of research that can be done in Stage 2 depended largely on external funding.