BY GARY MEYERHOFF
Drug user advocate groups have long argued that the Northern Territory should replace its methadone reduction program, which only gives opiate users access to the drug for three months, with a long-term methadone maintenance program, such as exists in every other jurisdiction in Australia.
Such attempts by the Top End Users Forum, the Northern Territory's drug user organisation, were unsuccessful when the Country Liberal Party's Denis Burke was chief minister.
Under the CLP, authorities focussed on a purely "zero tolerance" approach to drugs. It was illegal, for example, for GPs to treat opiate addiction with opiates, forcing many users onto the street and into a flourishing black market.
So users of illicit substances and their supporters celebrated when Clare Martin's Labor government was swept into power in August.
But when they breathed a sigh of relief, they breathed too early. This week, drug user activists were stunned by reports that the methadone program will be closed altogether, probably until the outcome of a review which is not expected to be completed before June.
This means that the NT now has no methadone program, either reduction or maintenance. A spokesperson for Territory Health Services Alcohol and Drug Program confirmed that the program had been closed down and that currently no-one is being assessed for the methadone reduction program.
This is a huge step backwards for drug users in the Territory. The closure of the methadone reduction program by the Labor government is of major concern, especially in the context of recent policy announcements.
Labor has established a new drug taskforce, appointing Dr Valerie Asche as "anti-drugs chief". This task force will look at "Territory Police enforcing a zero-tolerance attitude to drug production and distribution, and the compulsory treatment of drug addicts arrested on drug-related crimes".
Labor's mini-budget, released last week, revealed a funding increase to enable the doubling of the size of the drug squad.
Labor police minister Syd Stirling has also promised to make the sections of the Public Order and Anti-Social Conduct Act that deal with drug users harsher, as he tried (unsuccessfully) to do when Denis Burke's CLP government introduced the legislation earlier this year.
Labor has repealed Burke's mandatory sentencing system — only to replace it with their own system of mandatory sentencing which in some cases will be even harsher.
Mandatory sentencing legislation for drug offences has not been touched by the new government: it is still illegal for GPs to use opiates to treat addiction and rather than ending zero tolerance policing, it is being expanded.
This, coupled with the closure of the methadone reduction program, is causing alarm bells to ring across the Territory.
Left-wingers have condemned the government's direction, with the co-convenor of the Territory Socialist Alliance, Ruth Ratcliffe, stating: "Rather than a reduction in the number of options available to opiate dependent users, what we need is a massive expansion in the number of options available, including improved detox and rehabilitation facilities and further investigation of other pharmaceutical alternatives."
Ratcliffe argued that other pharmaceutical products which are available for the treatment of opiate addiction, including naltrexone, buprenorphine and diamorphine (heroin), should also be available.
"Opiate users need to have a range of options open to them. Ultimately, we need fundamental law reform in the Territory."
[Support drug users in the Territory by emailing the Territory health minister Jane Aagaard at <jane.aagaard@nt.gov.au>, and send a copy to the chief minister (<clare.martin@nt.gov.au>) and the police minister (<syd.stirling@nt.gov.au>). Also send a copy to the Top End Users Forum, <topendusers@eudoramail.com>.]
From Green Left Weekly, December 5, 2001.
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