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MJA: Wodak, Prescribing heroin: nothing to fear but fear itself? Prescribing heroin: nothing to fear but fear itself? Illicit drug policy based on punitive measures has failed, and it is time to seek a healthcare approach MJA 1998; 168: 590-591 The worsening global problem of illicit drugs will have been under discussion at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) in New York this month (8-10 June), just a few days before this issue of the Journal is published. The international crisis to which the United Nations is responding reflects decades of preferring to view the world as we would like it to be rather than as it is. Despite decades of alarming deterioration in outcomes associated with illicit drugs, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (26 June) is likely to be marked by yet more grandiloquent pronouncements of unachievable goals. In another editorial in this issue, Manderson describes the evolution of the complex drug control web in which we are now caught.1 Whenever new evidence has emerged of increasing illicit drug production and poorer outcomes, the reflex response of the international community has been to attempt to even more vigorously reduce supply. Genuine efforts to develop evidence-based alternative approaches, such as the proposed Australian Capital Territory heroin trial in 1997, have all too often been resisted by politicians. Senior Australian law enforcement officers have recently begun to question the traditional reliance on efforts to control illicit drug supply, with some calling for greater emphasis on treatment.2 After a recent meeting, Australian police commissioners "formally agreed to consider a range of strategies focusing on rehabilitation and avoiding the criminal justice system".2 Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie, said commissioners had decided to "almost wipe the slate clean" on current strategies.2 Australian criminal intelligence experts have stated that "law enforcement efforts are having only a limited effect on the amount of heroin offered at street level", and concluded that "it is obvious that current policies are not working".3 Some health interventions against illicit drugs, such as methadone treatment and needle exchange programs, have proved remarkably effective. Full Article: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/jun15/wodak/wodak.html |
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2006 Ethics-Governance.com |
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