Zero-Tolerance to Drug Use
Letter to the Editor from DCI-Australia : 2 April 1999
Reports on 1 April of the Prime Minister's call for a "zero-tolerance" approach to drug use by students should have been an April Fools Day joke. It is
deeply disturbing that he was serious and further evidence that he is receiving dangerously naive advice.
As the local chapter of an international children's rights network, Defence for Children has been critical of a number of policy directions taken by the Victorian
Government. Minister Napthine's wrong-headed determination to build another young offender detention facility (The Age 29 March) is one of them. However, we applaud the Premier's dogged
pursuit of harm minimisation approaches to drug use and Education Minister Phil Gude's support for school policies and practices that deal realistically with young people's drug
experimentation or problems.
These issues interconnect because of the links between young people's drug use, school attendance and involvement in crime. Yet Minister Napthine is unwilling to
accept the advice of an unprecedented alliance of churches, professional bodies and service agencies who urge him to do more to help young offenders rehabilitate in the community. Some eighty percent
of 17 to 20 year olds in youth detention are there due to drug or alcohol related offending.
Minister Napthine claims his desire for a new, potentially private, lock up facility is driven by concern about some of the current substandard accommodation. But he
either fails or refuses to accept that better strategies and programs in the community would immediately cut or even eliminate the need to build replacement beds.
The Premier was successful in pioneering a whole of government response to drugs in Victoria. He should bring such leadership to the youth
detention controversy.
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