‘Insane’ plan to legalise the drug ice: Addicts would go to GP under councillor’s plan
IT is the horror drug killing addicts and driving Sydney families apart, but one local councillor has called for the drug ice to be legalised.
NSW
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IT is the horror drug killing addicts and driving Sydney families apart, but one local councillor has called for the drug ice to be legalised.
Manly Councillor Hugh Burns wants ice to be provided to “confirmed drug addicts” by GPs because it would be safer than buying from drug dealers.
But he told The Manly Daily it was not about advocating drug use, rather it was a matter of “defining the dose”.
“I think it would be safer to have a branded product with a standard dose even if it’s morally repugnant,” he said.
His plan has been met with scorn from both his colleagues and anti-drug campaigners.
Tony Wood, whose daughter Anna died after taking an ecstasy tablet in 1995, called the idea flat-out “insane”.
“How does he even get on council, for goodness sake. I’m flabbergasted,” he said.
“It’s completely ridiculous. The problem is … they’re banned because they are dangerous, they’re not dangerous because they are banned and ice is just such a dreadful, horrible drug that’s destroyed so many young lives.
“I just can’t understand how anybody could think about legalising this stuff.”
Fellow Manly councillor and policeman Alan Le Surf blasted Cr Burns’ suggestion saying ice was just “a slow way to die”.
“It’s like crack,” he said.
“People who take it will want to go back and have some more. It’s a slow way to die, but eventually you will.” Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has previously called ice a “scourge” and said: “For those caught in it, it is creeping death. It destroys communities, it destroys nations.”
But Dr Alex Wodak, a physician at St Vincent’s Hospital, said the idea of legalisation was a “helpful suggestion” and a contribution to debate on law reform.
“It’s time, exactly right now, to have this debate,” he said. He favours controlled legalisation of less-powerful drugs, similar to how methadone clinics operate.
“Under prohibition more dangerous drugs drive out less dangerous ones,” he said.
Drug expert Rebecca McKetin, a researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra disagreed, saying even if the problems associated with organised crime were removed, users would still face health problems.
Manly Council voted to write to Manly state Liberal MP and Premier Mike Baird to call for a drug summit.
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