NEWS: [The Age] - 29/04/2005 'Salvo drugs czar takes up role abroad'

Salvo drugs czar takes up role abroad
By Misha Schubert
April 29, 2005

After more than seven years as Prime Minister John Howard's drugs czar, Brian Watters has resigned to take on a new job in global narcotics policy.

The Salvation Army major, who describes himself as "uncompromising" in his quest to stamp out illicit drug use and in his staunch opposition to heroin injecting rooms, said he was sad to be moving on.

Despite a written appeal from Mr Howard, the International Narcotics Control Board has refused to let Major Watters take up his advisory role with it while he holds a government job. He opted for the global post, for which he will travel to Vienna several times a year, triggering a search for a new domestic drug policy chief.

Yesterday he nominated a "spectacular" fall in drug-related deaths as his proudest achievement as Australian National Council on Drugs chairman.

"We've seen a drop of 700 deaths a year from drug overdose - from a peak of 1100 in 2000 - and with it a drop in suffering for families and loved ones," he said yesterday. "Treatment works," he said - in preference to harm minimisation. "We can save lives."

Mr Howard praised his work yesterday, saying there was "no doubt that many Australian lives have been saved and their families and friends spared the trauma of drug addiction as a result of the contributions of Major Watters".

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