I will pay the taxes to lock up all the druggies, preferably with a 3 strikes system. Chain gangs sound good.

I will not pay taxes to treet them with bull dung.

Harm minimisation is a only way of generating lots of nice jobs, for the usless twits comming out of some areas of our education system.
From what I have seen, most of them are using almost as much as the ones they are treating.

We do not need more research into the effects of drugs. The jury is in, and guess what, drugs are bad. It's pretty well established by now that drugs both cause and/or exacerbate mental illness. The link between drug taking and criminal activity is well known, and I don't mean to equate the two here.
The Greens policy sounds pretty good in parts; there is little point criminalising drug takers when there are so many who partake.It just doesn't work.
I'd like to see draconian penalties introduced for producers and suppliers- stiff minimum prison sentences without parole. Say 10 years for possession of 5-10 doses of a drug, and escalating sharply for more. Wouldn't need too many 'heads on pikes' to see a dramatic turnaround in drug supplies.
The increase in mental health issues can be strongly, but not exclusively, sheeted home to drug taking.

"The increase in mental health issues can be strongly, but not exclusively, sheeted home to drug taking."

Really? Can you back this statement?

There is no evidence of this at all, it is a "children overboard" truth.

All that can be said is that people with mental illness tend to use more illicit drugs, this does not mean that these drugs cause mental illness.

Regarding the substance of the article, I feel that the has law-and-order approach has been a total failure. If we've had a "war on drugs", then drugs have won. According to these stats http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10393 nearly 40% of adult Australians admitted to having taken illegal drugs, with nearly 20% taking them in the last 12 months. A shift to an emphasis on public health programs is long overdue.

Hasbeen, perhaps you might want to "pay the taxes to lock up all the druggies", but be prepared to dig deep. If you locked up every person who'd taken illegal drugs in the last 12 months the Australian prison population would go from 25,000 to 2,500,000. Hope you aren't expecting the govt to fund flim-flam like roads, hospitals or schools.

Runner, I think you should do some research before sounding off. In NSW http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/2000/may/03-05-00.html and Victoria http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/humanservicesnews/aug01/diab.htm needles have been supplied free of charge to insulin-dependent diabetics since 2000 and 2001.

No question that Australia has a big problem with legal and illegal drugs. But those arguing against harm minimisation might ponder Australian smoking rates http://www.quit.org.au/quit/fandi/fandi/c01s1.htm . Australian male smkoking rates have gone from 72% to 27% since 1945. Looks to me like harm minimisation has got things moving in the right direction.

Runner I'm so glad you brought diabetics into it! Now about warped priorities....

We actually have two classes of diabetic children in this country. One lot are confined to 6 tightly timed and carbohydrate counted meals and 4 upwards needles a day because their parents because they couldn't afford private health insurance. The other lot are normal 'eat when they are hungry' (which is all the time) kids whose parents or private health insurance have paid for the pump which come in around $6000. These kids at the end of the day have a better outcome and will cost our community far less in treating problems such as eye and kidney disease over the years.

Now you would think a smart government would cough up and buy all the kids pumps, thus saving millions down the track, and also just to let the poor kids act like other kids without diabetes. But then this is a Government who also spends millions on propaganda and sees that as a higher priority. Treating drug use as a medical rather than a criminal problem also would save millions and help keep lives together. But apparently warped priorities rule the day.

By the way, the kids get their needles free. The government has got a few things right. But I think the Greens would have the kids on pumps before the conservatives.

I'm awake, are you wake? See Lancet. See Saint Vinnies Emergency any night of the week. See criminal justice records. Look around you.Do 10 years of counselling. "both causes and exacerbates".
That light ahead is a train RU.