NEWS: Ecstasy users paid

THE Territory's Labor Government is paying ``regular users'' of ecstasy to take part in a drug abuse survey, the CLP said last night.

But the NT Government said the survey was part of an annual program organised by the Coalition Federal Government and was being paid for by Canberra.

Ecstasy users are being paid $30 for a 50-minute interview with a Health Department official.

Community Services Minister Delia Lawrie said the NT Government had asked the Federal Government to make payment in music vouchers, not cash, but this was refused.

The Federal National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre said the use of vouchers rather than cash would attract a narrower range of drug users _ ``and may introduce undesirable bias into the sample''.

CLP health spokesman Richard Lim said: ``I can understand that the Health Department may want the answers to some questions.

``What I can't fathom is how the Government, with its war on drugs, can pay users for interviews.''

Ms Lawrie said Dr Lim had not checked his facts and should direct his concerns to Canberra.

Dr Lim said much information, such as cost and trends in the drug scene, could easily be obtained from the police drug squad _ ``at no cost''.

``Another part of the survey is targeted at finding out what the positive or negative affects of ecstasy are,'' Dr Lim said.

``That information is already readily available from all sorts of research that has been done by highly qualified academics and is easily sourced from academic publications.

``A search for `ecstasy' on Google will provide the reader with 27,700,000 sites to look at.''

Ms Lawrie said the information collected provided ``early warning of emerging problems in party drug use''.

This allowed decision makers to take counter- or preventative measures

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To whom it may concern

It has been standard policy since at least 1984 for researchers in health and law enforcement to reimburse drug users who participate in research interviews for their time, travel and inconvenience.

The rationale for this practice was that compensating drug users for the inconvenience of being interviewed was the best way of enlisting cooperation, especially among drug users who are not enrolled in treatment services or in prison. The inconvenience involved in most interviews is considerable as typically an hour or more of the person's time is taken and they usually have to travel from their homes to be interviewed.

The practice of reimbursing subjects and the amount or nature of the payment (such as vouchers) payments can only be made after the study has been approved by Human Research Ethics Committees established by Universities and Hospitals. These committees contain members of the community, religious leaders, lawyers, doctors and researchers not associated with the studies in question. Over the years the question of subject payments is raised, considered and approved by Ethics Committees across the country.

Research examining this issue has found that monetary incentives do not influence the type of answers provided by participants, future drug use, and they are not the primary reason for involvement in research. Nevertheless, compensation for the time and effort involved in being part of this research (interviews can sometimes take up to three hours) is standard practice in drug and alcohol research as well as other health research, in this country and internationally. The information we receive from drug users (both licit and illicit) is crucial to inform evidence based policy, and treatment and prevention programs.


Professor Richard P Mattick
Director
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2057
ph: +61 + 02 9385 0331
fax: + 61 +02 9385 0222
web: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au
PA: +61 + 9385 0292

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