"I think the public is not as resistant to (change) as perhaps some politicans might think...the attitude has changed dramatically. I think it is time for change," Mr Palmer said. At the launch of the report urging a new debate on decriminalisation of the drug laws, former Defence Department Secretary, Paul Barratt said Ms Gillard's negative response today showed the need to open up the debate and the need to "destigmatise" the notion of drug law reform. Mr Barratt said all available evidence showed that tough on drugs policy had failed. The United States had spent $1 trillion on its war on drugs policies but the drugs and drug crime still remained commonplace. It was time to base policy on "what works rather than gut instinct", Mr Barratt told the launch of the Australia21 report in Canberra. Ms Marion McConnell, whose son died from a herion overdose, said that at the time she like most Australians believed the ''propaganda'' about the war on drugs but now believed very strongly in the need for drug law change.

Earlier, Senator Carr said he supported a police regime that represented a de facto decriminalisation of "lesser drugs at the margins", labelling it a "practical use of police time". "We wouldn't have armies of police patrolling outside nightclubs and pubs hoping to snatch someone who's got an ecstasy tablet in his or her pocket of purse," he told the ABC. "And we wouldn't be having police chasing individual users of marijuana." The Foreign Minister said he was proud that during his time as NSW premier he "effectively eliminated' criminal penalties for individual marijuana use. In contrast, Ms Gillard said she was not in favour of decriminalisation: "My view about drugs is clear. Drugs kill people they rip families apart, they destroy lives and we want to see less harm done through drug usage," the Prime Minister said. ''I am not in favour of decriminalisation of any of our drug laws. We want to keep supporting people who need our help to break out of a cycle of addiction and we need to keep policing so we are tackling those who are seeking to make a profit out of what really is a trade in incredible misery.''

Senator Carr is part of a group of prominent Australians from both sides of politics who are backing a report by a population health expert, Emeritus Professor Bob Douglas, and researcher David McDonald that calls for a "fundamental rethink" of the current drugs policies, and an end to the "tough on drugs" approach. Senator Carr agreed to join the campaign, which also includes former health minister Michael Wooldridge and former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop, before he entered the Senate and was appointed Foreign Minister. Senator Carr said he was also proud to have been the only state premier to have introduce a medically supervised injecting room in 1999. "It saved lives," he said. Senator Carr's younger brother Greg overdosed on heroin in 1981 and died a year later. The report, by the think tank Australia21, was released at Parliament House this morning by former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC. Ms Gillard said she wanted to help people to break out of the addiction cycle, while police should enforce drug laws.

"Drugs kills people, they rip families apart, they destroy lives," she told reporters in Sydney. The Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, is also sceptical about deregulating Australia's drug laws and said there would need to be a "very high threshold" for change. "I think we need to tread very, very cautiously in this area," she told ABC radio this morning. Ms Roxon said she needed to read the report before she suggested any particular action but stated that she was open to a debate about drug reform. "As a government we're always interested and happy to engage in debate but there's a pretty high threshold," Ms Roxon said.

"It think it's entirely appropriate for people to look at the difficult social questions that have dogged us for years." Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said decriminalising drugs was a "simplistic idea" that the community should be cautious of. "Dealing with the drug problem is not a 'war' as the American term 'war on drugs' suggests, because it is not a battle to be won or lost,'' he said in a statement. "It is a societal problem that requires constant vigilance and the police role is one of community protection. The police fulfil this role by working to prevent deaths on our roads, prevent family violence in our homes and assaults in our streets." Moves to decriminalise drugs would make it more difficult for police to prevent road fatalities, domestic violence and assaults, he said.

The central finding of the report released in Canberra this morning is that Australia's war on drugs has ''failed comprehensively'', generating much of the street and household crime because of prohibition of drugs like heroin, which was legal in Australia until 1953. The report is aimed at re-igniting serious debate on illicit drug law reform. The report, supported by two former premiers, a former chief minister, a former national police chief and a dozen other eminent Australians, has been sponsored by the Australia21 think tank. It declares the prohibiton of illicit drugs is ''killing and criminalising our children and we are all letting it happen''. The group does not propose a specific set of reforms but says it sees the need ''to unmask prohibition and its harms and to place the onus on our lawmakers... to develop a process that stops the criminalisation and continuing drug deaths of too many young Australians''. The report saysthat despite gains made in Australia's harm minimisation program for drug-users begun 20years ago, illict drugs continue to damage society.

About 400 Australians died each year from illicit drug use, thousands of others suffered significant ill-health as a result of unsafe injecting and infections. But discussion of drug policy in recent years ''has been largely absent from the Australian political agenda except as an excuse for being tough on law and order''. It acknowledges many Australians fear that liberalisation of drugs could increase rather than diminish, dangers to children. But it says a growing body of evidence from overseas ''indicates that these fears are misplaced''. By defining use of certain drugs as criminal acts, ''governments have also avoided any responsibility to regulate and control the quality of substances that are in widespread use''. Some of the drugs had demonstrable health benefits.

But the current criminalisation of these drugs, discredited the law which could not possibly stop thje growing trade that thrives on illegality and blackmarket status. Prisons were crowded with people whose lives had been ruined by drug dependence. Like the prohibition of the 1920s in the United States, the laws were creaming more harms than benefits. Portugal had decrminalised its drug approach a decade ago ''with excellent results'' and a number of other countries had adopted similar approaches. with Judith Ireland, Henrietta Cook

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