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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Australia: Legalise Marijuana Says Drug Reformer
Fairfield Advance (Australia)
Wednesday 28 Feb 2001 Pubdate: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 Source: Fairfield Advance (Australia) LEGALISE MARIJUANA SAYS DRUG REFORMER DRUGS must be treated as a health and social problem instead of a criminal issue, according to the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation's Dr Alex Wodak. Dr Wodak spoke last Wednesday at Fairfield Council at the federal inquiry into drug and substance abuse. ``What has gone on for the last 25 years in this country has been an enormous failure, we have to be prepared for flexibility, we have to be prepared to try different things,'' he said. One of those things, he believes, is legalising marijuana and offering heroin by prescription. ``If kids want to buy cannabis, chances are they'll buy it from someone who can supply them with other drugs and that's crazy,'' he said. ``I would like to be able to give (a) health warning (as with) cigarettes.'' He said the cannabis industry was worth $5 billion and other drugs $2.5 billion. In 1997, 100,000 people injected drugs regularly. Occasional users numbered 175,000 and the number was rising by more than seven per cent a year. ``Law enforcement will always be inadequate for that task, we need to get the numbers of users down,'' Dr Wodak said. ``We have to do what we did for public drinking 20 years ago, it is fundamentally a health and social issue.'' Dr Wodak said each dollar spent on drug education saved $2.60 in health and social costs. __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. --- MAP posted-by: GD -----End of original message from MAPNews-----
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