apollo - The INCB regulate the legal opiate industry, and Australia is one of the bigger legal opiate producing countries. They've threatend sanctions in the past when the heroin trial was suggested for example.
Watters has traditionally been dead against these more cutting edge harm reduction strategies, so I'm not confident he'll represent or advocate for Australian harm reduction endeavours if ever this is called for.
About the quoted reduction in drug use, this is bullshit. There was an increase in cannabis use from 1995 - 1998, but this corrected in the last survey, to 1995 levels. If you look at this on a graph, there's bugger all change.
Excluding cannabis, overall drug use has risen slightly, mainly due to an increase in MDMA use. Heroin users effected by the drought switched to either prescription opiates (MS Contin etc), benzos, or meth. An overdose of morphine isn't recorded as a heroin related death, so that data isn't available.
Despite the government's best efforts, it's pretty clear the heroin drought was related to a shift amongst SE Asian crime syndicates from heroin to crystal meth. Notice that when the heroin drought occured (2001-2002?) there was a noticable increase in the availability of imported crystal meth, both on the street and in customs siezures.
Back to Watters. I came across this the other day.
PM's drug fighter wins spot on UN board
By Deborah Gough
Social Affairs Reporter
May 7, 2004
The Age
Prime Minister John Howard's hand-picked drugs policy adviser, Brian Watters, has been voted onto one of the world's most powerful drug bodies.
The Federal Government nominated Major Watters, a hardline anti-drugs campaigner with the Salvation Army, for a five-year post on the United Nations 13-member International Narcotics Control Board.
Major Watters, the chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs in 1998, won 44 out of a potential 54 votes.
The board's role includes regulating the world's legal opiate supply, promoting compliance with international drug control treaties and research.
Mr Howard described the appointment as an "outstanding victory" that reflected the high international regard for Major Watters and the Australian Government in the field.
Major Watters said he hoped he could change the international perception that Australia was soft on drugs. "I think that some countries have misunderstood and haven't recognised our achievements, perhaps, and I hope to change that," he said.
"They tend to think we are a bit accepting of drug issues because of our harm-reduction strategy."
Mr Howard said the Government's drugs taskforce had seen the proportion of people using illicit drugs fall by 23 per cent in the three years to 2001, along with a 67 per cent drop since 1999 in heroin-related deaths for people aged 15 to 55.
Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, said Major Watters' appointment was unsurprising because he met the requirements of other members of the international board.
Dr Wodak said it was only last year that the board included harm reduction as a focus in its annual report.
"Half of the them were born before World War II and the average age is 65, so it is no wonder they don't have 'real world' policies," he said.
Dr Wodak said that while the Federal Government publicly said it was "tough on drugs" it quietly increased funding for harm-reduction pro-grams.
He criticised the Government's reduction figures as rubbery, saying they involved changes to the way figures were compiled and international factors that had affected the supply, which led to fewer deaths.
Major Watters criticised the use of the phrase "harm minimisation" by some groups.
"My concern is that there are people committed to the Humpty-Dumpty approach to liberalisation or legalisation of illicit drugs and they have prostituted the term 'harm minimisation', when it should really be about reducing the harm they can do themselves," he said.
And then this very surprising article from The Australian. I think there's some spin-doctoring happening here...
Anti-drug stalwart softens hard line
By Misha Schubert
May 07, 2004
The Australian
THE Howard Government's drug czar - a long-time advocate of hardline policies on illicit drugs - has said an abstinence-driven "just say no" approach does not work with people trapped in addiction.
Australian National Council on Drugs chairman Brian Watters, who has just been elected to the International Narcotics Control Board, conceded yesterday that addiction "is the outcome of the underlying situations in people's lives".
"Fundamentally if we can get people to say no, that's wonderful," retired Salvation Army major Watters told The Australian.
"But if a person is involved in addiction, they can't say no - they don't have the capacity to say that."
Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott, who has advocated a "just say no" line on illegal drug use, yesterday insisted there was no difference between his views and those of Mr Watters.
