"Society has not found the solution to drug use".

There is a solution. Before the age of 12 condition the child to become a health fanatic.

Good article.

The fact of the matter is that we live in a "culture" saturated in drugs. There is a drug "remedy" for almost everything. We become under the influence of drugs even in our mothers womb as all drugs cross the placenta.

Most of us become totally drugged out during the birth process. It takes days, weeks, monthsto recover from that drug assault on the babies sensitive biological systems.

Think of how much money and resources and productive land that is used world-wide to grow the raw materials for all of our legal drugs. Tea, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, the various kinds of plants that are used to produce alcohol, and sugar which is an addictive substance.

Look at all the legal "medicinal" drugs advertised on TV particularly during the winter. The fact of the matter is that most of these minor complaints will disappear by themselves within a few days. And a change of diet to include lots of fresh (raw) fruits and vegetable would reduce the incidence of both colds and sniffles.

But hey that means we would have to take real responsibility for what we put in our mouths and our health altogether. The fact of the matter is that there are very direct links between the kinds and quantities of stuff we put in our mouths and the various dis-eases (both minor and major) that we suffer from.

Also humans have an inherent urge to be happy or ecstatic. Ecstasy is fundamentally taboo in our "culture". It is suprressed in all kinds of ways.

Watching Howard on TV is extremely depressing. Ecstasy verboten

So people will always find ways to go troppo, to become ecstatic. That is why, despite the known dangers, young people of all ages to dance/trance parties and use the drug ecstasy to become ecstatic. Such parties are fun, everyone is happy.

In our normal dreadful sanity we are all supposed to work. Plus eat junk food, watch TV (and thereby be told what to do and what is "real") and consume all the products advertised on TV which will make us "happy"

Anex,a White verson or the Lucrative, Aboriginal Victim Industry?
for further info. www.whitc.info/

Why anyone would take anything Browyn Bishop says seriously is beyond me.

As one who has been at the coal face of illicit drug use, and seen loved ones destroy their lives because of their ill effects, I thank Mr. Ryan and Dr. Woodak for their efforts to change the way that drug abuse is approached in Australia. The current regime is not working, and it is a good thing that public discussion on drug abuse is slowly coming to realise that (albeit slowly).

Always remember the three Rs:
- Supply reduction: the focus should be on those who attempt to profit from the sale of illicit drugs;
- Demand reduction: a ounce of prevention is alway worth a pound of cure. Education and access to treatment programs is the key;
- Harm reduction: If all else fails, I would rather a living, breathing drug user than a dead one.

It's good online opinion continues to publish articles on this subject.

Did anyone else take issue with the fact that the author of this piece repeatedly referred only to the parents of drug users? Maybe its just me - but I found this detracted substantially from the impact of this message.

By figuring only parents as the ones to suffer from an individuals drug problem a) the tendency is to consider drug-related problems as the province only of teenage or young people; and 2)the relevance to the community as a whole is understated - if not completely lost.

The problems of an addicted person impact horrifically on their children, spouses and siblings; to a slightly lesser extent on their friends; and even on their co-workers and associates.

Thus Ms Bishops stance could rather be considered as important to the entire community, rather than being portrayed as an issue with relevance only to one particular sector.

I know plenty of people who have'just said no' to drugs. There's nothing wrong with this approach as a first line.

Combating the attitudes at large, which romanticise and promote illicit drug use is a necessary thing. If not the government,who?

There's nothing wrong with these approaches, if they are part of a comprehensive programme that includes useful and realistic education, harsh penalties for the manufacture and distribution, detox and rehab.