With the Federal Government’s recent backdown on trialing alternatives to prohibition and criminal sanctions when dealing with illicit drug use, Local Government has once again come to the forefront as a catalyst for formulating strategies to address community issues.
The Conference of the Capital City Lord Mayors, held in Adelaide late last year, agreed on an united harm minimisation approach to deal with this major social problem. The Conference was unanimous in the belief that current strategies to counter illicit drug use are clearly not working.
Viewing drug use as a social health issue rather than a criminal problem, the Lord Mayors called for establishing a structure for close, ongoing liaison between Councils, the police, the courts, the providers of services to drug dependent people and organisations representing drug users.
They agreed to seek to improve access to rehabilitation and related services in each Capital City through community policing and the provision for counselling, as well as support for families of drug users.
They assert that a greater emphasis must be placed on community policing strategies to reduce health and other harms associated with drug use. The whole community is currently paying for a heavy drug user’s habit through increased property crime, violence and associated health risks. At the same time, while prohibition prevails this continues to line the pockets of unscrupulous people who make large profits from the illicit trade.
With opiate related deaths now one of the leading causes of death among people aged 25-34 years, the human and social costs of heavy drug use demands new strategies.
In a further display of leadership and a willingness to confront community issues head on, the Mayors of 10 Melbourne Councils recently signed an accord to combat illicit drug use in their communities.
Signed at the First International Conference on Drugs and Young People, this statement calls for further examination of alternatives to reduce drug related problems. These include the reintroduction of the heroin trial (Canberra model), safe injecting rooms, further community discussion on the legal status of drugs and amendments to the self administration law.
The key aim of this statement is to develop a common framework of action. This will then minimise the risk of simply shifting the drug problem from one municipality to another.
The drug problem is a community wide problem. We desperately need a national policy developed and supported by all spheres of government. Local Government has already shown it is willing and able to draw together relevant groups in each community to formulate a strategy and then translate this into action.
The Federal Government must work cooperatively with the States and Local Government to develop a new policy framework that moves away from the costly, and largely ineffective, approach of prohibition and criminal sanctions. The Federal Government must also provide the necessary resources so communities across the nation are adequately equipped to address this major health and social problem.
