Mr BARRESI (5:25 PM) —Given the amount of mail that arrives in my electorate office each day, there are relatively few letters addressing the vital issue of drugs. Perhaps this is because the community at large is, quite understandably, unsure about how we can adequately deal with the scourge of drugs. However, it is an issue that is always with us, affecting many thousands of us directly and all of us in some way or another. The few letters that do come from my constituents about drugs rarely contain advice. They are usually desperate cries for help, emanating from family, from friends and from addicts themselves.

So how do we respond, especially when views in the community range from zero tolerance through to full legalisation? While legalising drug use would be largely unacceptable to the community, treating drug users as criminals seemingly has done little to ease the problem. In Victoria, the Kennett government has trialled the Cannabis Cautioning Program with some success. Now it is being introduced state wide and will involve police issuing cautions to low level users who have no previous history of drug use. It is an attempt to educate drug users, rather than prosecute them, to sharpen the focus on harm minimisation.

By way of contrast, I note that experts are attributing the sixth successive drop in US annual crime figures to the Zero Tolerance Program, pioneered by Mayor Rudolf Giuliani of New York City, and its adoption by other major cities. Mayor Giuliani wants to arrest all users of marijuana. This approach is at the other end of the spectrum. Both approaches indicate to me that at the very least among governments and community groups there is an acceptance of a real problem which cannot be allowed to defeat us. Federal, state and local governments, churches and many community organisations are all involved, committing ever-increasing funds and resources in an attempt to, as Professor Penington termed it, `turn the tide'.

Drug usage no longer occurs only in certain areas. We no longer believe that paying for a private school education will shield our young from temptation. We no longer presume that users of drugs are all society drop-outs or bad kids. Drugs are in every suburb, not just in the inner city, and have permeated every socioeconomic strata. In Melbourne's east, we have seen police blitzes drive out some of the visible drug use in Box Hill, but in reality all they have done is move it to nearby Mitcham. When the police have moved their concentration to Mitcham, the activity has moved along again—a situation which is repeated from suburb to suburb, from one side of Australia to the other.

Deakin's leafier suburbs of Ringwood North and Blackburn are similarly not immune. On many occasions I have pulled up the garage door to find syringes littering the laneway at the back of my house. It is of growing con cern to me as I look at my own six- and seven-year-old children and my ability to protect them from the parasitic overtures of schoolyard drug dealers.

While drug use is certainly not confined to our young people, it is they who are most vulnerable to the evil schemes of pushers of narcotics. Despite the intense education effort, there are still many who slip through the net and begin to take drugs. The national study on illicit drugs released last week indicated that 13 per cent of our 12-year-olds had used illegal substances. Further, 40 per cent of those aged between 12 and 17 had tried illegal drugs and 55 per cent of all 17-year-olds had used cannabis. These figures would indicate that most Australians who use drugs have had exposure to the scene at a very young age.

From discussions with drug users and youth workers, I know there are many reasons why the young use drugs. Whatever the reason, the initial try is usually a result of peer pressure or curiosity. We know that a young person's curiosity is not an easy thing to put a lid on. If drugs are available, there is a certain inevitability that some will not be able to avoid the temptation to try them.

Why many continue to use drugs, and progress to harder substances, is a more perplexing question. Feelings of hopelessness and despair, fuelled by a lack of parental support, employment opportunities and growing rates of homelessness are but some of the causes often given. Some of these young people consider themselves to be condemned to a life of misery for themselves and their families, turning to crime to finance their habit.

I look forward to the release of the Commonwealth's school drug education strategy soon. The Commonwealth is committing $17.5 million for education purposes as part of its larger $215 million Tough on Drugs program. From the two drug forums I have hosted in Deakin over the past two years, I know that we have some of the finest individuals and organisations working on the problem, with little reward except the considerable satisfaction of knowing that their work will save lives. In Melbourne's east there are over a dozen organisations operating under the banner of the Eastern Alcohol and Drug Association. These organisations offer assessments, referrals, consultation, counselling, community education, withdrawal programs, needle and syringe exchanges, support, therapy and other services for drug users and affected families. These people are perhaps in the best position to judge the types of services we need to offer to stamp out drugs.

Reach Out for Kids, better known as ROKs, is one organisation working in partnership with the community to better educate our young people and their parents about drugs and how to deal with them. Based in Nunawading, Reach Out for Kids, under the excellent leadership of their president, Terry McDonald, and the agency coordinator, David Monro, invited me recently to join the committee of management. I am honoured to receive such an invitation and look forward to contributing to their great work.

Over 20 years, Reach Out for Kids has aimed to provide a range of integrated services to assist economically, socially and emotionally disadvantaged children, youth and families. They have been extremely supportive of my initiative to bring schools, youth workers, medical practitioners and social welfare organisations together for a regional analysis on drug related issues, with a view to taking part in the Commonwealth's response.

At my most recent drug forum on 20 August, I spoke with and received great feedback from many local people working with drug issues. There was agreement on several points: that drug education is vital and best if it begins when children are young; that this education is not the sole responsibility of teachers and, in many ways, parents can better identify problems; that parents require education and training in this respect.

Linda Harrington from the Whitehorse Division of General Practice noted that general practitioners were often referring parents to her. She further endorsed the call for education and training and the need to offer a package to parents and general practitioners in order to combat the problem and provide those parents with the necessary skills. We know that poor parenting skills are frequently associated with young people's use of drugs. Parenting courses are a vital part of a response.

We also agreed that outside organisations, such as Reach Out for Kids, are a great help to schools because of their professional knowledge. Finally we agreed that the strengthening of the family relationship—an aspect that is often spoken about in this House—is of key importance in winning the battle.

Due to these two forums I have held, it is my wish to continue the dialogue with these very worthy organisations and people to establish an advisory committee made up of parents, teachers, young people and youth workers—a committee to keep me abreast of developments and to ensure that the government response meets our local needs. From a personal point of view, I hope to see our education process take root so that fewer young people take that first step into the drug culture.

One of the most common criticisms is the length of time that many people have to wait for rehabilitation and detoxification services. Due to a lack of sufficient resources, it seems that community workers are rarely available after hours, that answering machines predominate after dark. This is not to criticise youth and social workers but rather to highlight funding needs. A cry for help from an addict or family must be heard and acted upon immediately. The time between an appeal for help and the arrival of that helping hand is the best ally of those grim reapers known as pushers. (Time expired)