Doctor hits out at govt drug policies
PM - Friday, 8 December , 2006 18:45:00
Reporter: Annie Guest
MARK COLVIN: And as you heard, there's a link between the violence in emergency rooms, and drugs. And if there is a "war on drugs", as politicians often say there is, then its frontline is in the emergency wards of Australia's hospitals.
Now a senior emergency doctor has taken direct aim at the politicians.
Royal Adelaide Hospital's Dr David Caldicott says Federal and State Government drug policies are largely populist, and don't work.
He's told a Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform that there's no scientific evidence to support the war on drugs.
Afterwards, Annie Guest asked Dr Caldicott why he thought politicians approached the drug issue in the way they did.
DAVID CALDICOTT: I think they're turning to populist knee-jerk type policies, rather than looking at real issues that cause a reduction in the drug use, the drug harm and the number of deaths caused by drugs.
ANNIE GUEST: Well, if we take Federal Government policies, the Federal Government says its "tough on drugs policy" is working and it stands by strategies of policing and interdiction, saying that they've been highly successful in relation to, in particular, cannabis and heroin.
DAVID CALDICOTT: Well, you have to ask the question of course, whether or not the reduction in heroin use in Australia is in fact to do with policing or whether it's in fact to do with the reduction in supply in Australia.
If there was such a tremendous success in policing the heroin problem, why aren't we seeing similar decreases in, say, for example, the ecstasy problem.
We aren't, in fact we see the steady march of ecstasy in consumption, all around Australia.
ANNIE GUEST: In your role as an emergency and trauma doctor, you see a lot of drug-related problems.
DAVID CALDICOTT: Absolutely.
ANNIE GUEST: Have you seen direct evidence of these policies not working?
DAVID CALDICOTT: Well, unfortunately, it is an ever-mounting mire of young adolescents who continue to experiment with drugs. Because really, they are now ignoring the messages of "Don't use drugs".
We asked young people at raves who they trust for their information on drugs, and in South Australia they trust the police more than they trust both the State and Federal Governments for their information on drugs, and that's a catastrophe.
ANNIE GUEST: The Federal Government says it goes beyond policing as well and puts substantial amounts of money into education campaigns.
DAVID CALDICOTT: Unfortunately, these education campaigns are abstinence-based. We have to accept the fact that 38 per cent, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare survey in 2005, 38 per cent of young Australians have tried an illegal substance.
If you are a drug user, and this is the opinion that would be espoused by many of the more right-wing politicians, then you deserve all the harm that's coming your way.
ANNIE GUEST: And what are those answers then?
DAVID CALDICOTT: Well, I think we can be quite clever in Australia and think outside the box. For example, let's support our needle injection rooms, which work so well, let's target drugs which we know to be very dangerous.
For example, hydroponic marijuana is more dangerous than bush-grown marijuana. We're a large ... very big supporters of school-based education, non-moral education, and I think there's more than enough evidence from a health perspective to persuade young people not to use drugs.
We have tried, ad nauseam, to introduce and trial a pill-testing program in Australia, and yet we've been repeatedly rebuffed and told that that sends the wrong message to consumers.
MARK COLVIN: Royal Adelaide Hospital emergency doctor, David Caldicott, speaking to Annie Guest.
