Marion would appreciate it if you could bring along a plate of food to the forum on 28^th June. Slice, cake, sandwiches or whatever you find easiest would be great. Please let Marion know if you can help (6254 2961).

Dr Michael Tedeschi, Senior Medical Officer with the Alcohol and Drug Program will be speaking about the new pharmacotherapies becoming available for opiate dependency including Naltrexone and Buprenorphine.

Thank you to all those who have renewed their membership. Your membership and your support enable the work of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform to continue. If you have not yet renewed we look forward to hearing from you soon as your membership is very important to us.

Tony Trimingham and Gerda Foster trained 17 ACT people as volunteers on the 24 hour telephone support line on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 June. Those participating expressed their appreciation of the course. Health Minister, Michael Moore presented certificates to those who did the training during the weekend and also to those who completed the training last November. There are now 30 volunteers trained in the ACT. A Press Release from the Health Minister’s office said in part:

"The Alcohol and Drug Program has been working closely with organisations which provide support and advocacy for families who have someone affected by alcohol and otherdrugs. This close working relationship supported the Family Drug Support Hotline training in November 2000 when it was conducted for the first time in the ACT. Working with and supporting families is an integral part of the National Illicit Drug Campaign, which aims to improve the health of the Australian community".

FFDLR appreciate very much its relationship with the ACT Community Care Alcohol and Drug Program.

The weekend training course received some media attention. Donald Denoon, one of our members spoke about the training program on ‘Drive Time’ on ABC Radio. It also got a mention in the Canberra Times and on WIN Television.

In the lead up to this year’s ACT Assembly elections the first shots in a new "drug war" skirmish have been fired by some candidates for the ACT election. This local skirmish is unlikely to result in positive outcomes for those addicted to drugs.

They have been urged into battle by one of the PM’s newest "Tough on Drugs" disciples who is an operator of a small 8 bed residential naltrexone heroin addiction treatment centre in SA. A self taught exponent who claimed at a public meeting to support evidence based policy but advocated ignoring the professionals and experts in the field.

What captivated the uncritical candidates (in addition to pro "drug war" rhetoric) were exaggerated claims of a 90% success rate but where success was undefined and as yet unverified. Exaggerated claims have been made for naltrexone in the past. Who could forget the Women’s Weekly’s headlines of an attractive young girl proudly proclaiming "I woke up cured of heroin..." which unashamedly promoted an Israel doctor’s rapid opiate detoxification clinic. But for desperate parents looking for the miracle cure it proved disappointing and substantially reduced their bank balance.

One definitive, published and peer reviewed study of naltrexone in Australia by Dr James Bell examined the outcomes of using naltrexone on 30 patients. After a period of 91 days only 6 of the 30 were still on naltrexone and only 2 of these had not used heroin in that time. This drug treatment has been promoted as an abstinence program and as such success should be measured in terms of abstinence. 2 out of 30 or about 7 percent is far short of the claimed 90% success rate. The drug was denied support for heroin addiction treatment under the PBS because of its lack of proven effectiveness. This of itself should be a good indicator of effectiveness.

The result of a further study of naltrexone as part of a major study on trials of new pharmacotherapies is to be announced in July. If newspaper reports in the Courier Mail and the West Australian, which appear to have leaked the results of the study, are correct, naltrexone will still not be shown to be a miracle cure. And the same newspapers in other stories link high numbers of overdoses with naltrexone treatment.

Treatment with naltrexone should however be included in the kit-bag of treatment and intervention solutions because it can be effective for some people, but it should not be promoted as a miracle cure. Nor should it be promoted over other effective treatments.

The most common attack is to contrast it to methadone maintenance treatment claiming that the latter simply continues the addiction albeit with another addictive drug whereas naltrexone helps people become drug free. This argument branches into a moral debate of whether being drug free is to be prized above all else. It must be noted that the overdose death rate for those on methadone is very low, retention rates for those on the program are over 40% and many people on this program can, and do, function very well in society.

It is understandable that the candidates for any election could be naive on the matter of drugs but if they intend to make this an issue in the election and intend to be community leaders they should undertake a little research first.

Their first shots have drawn heavy return fire from the ALP, currently in opposition, who have done their homework and have their drugs policy already in place. Their policy may not be ideal from our perspective but it is a significant step in the right direction.

Of course it is early days for all candidates in campaigning and there is still time for them to become more informed.

Drug policy issues are complex and not amenable to quick fix or magic bullet solutions. The vision of a drug free Australia must be tempered with reality. In 1999 almost 6,000kg of heroin was available on the streets and in 2001 in the midst of a "heroin drought" replacement drugs such as amphetamines and cocaine are entering the country in increasing quantities.

Drug policy is hard work and requires careful thought just to get small improvements.

In the upcoming election, whether that be a state or territory election or a federal one, a unified approach on drugs policy, with saving lives as first priority and community wellbeing a close second, may be too optimistic. Perhaps we can only hope that all protagonists are armed with sufficient knowledge and compassion and that they are very careful in their rush for power that they cause no more collateral damage in their bid for the spoils of this "war".

B McConnell

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called ‘rush hour’?