Young Australians "Utterly Ignore' Drug Prohibitionists

A multi-million dollar anti-drug advertising campaign run by Australian authorities dubbed Tough on Drugs is failing because few young people trust the government, leading drug expert Dr Cameron Duff said this week.

"We face the problem of being utterly ignored by giving a preventative message," Dr Duff, a director of the Australian Drug Foundation, told the Herald Sun Government.

"We're trying to compete against these pro-drug websites and the problem is a lot of that material is factually based. They (young people) don't trust the Government any more because there's a view the Government has exaggerated the risks," he admitted.

Dr Duff's comments came days before Australia's general election, which only the Green Party is fighting on an anti-prohibition harm reduction platform (ironically attracting a "substantial amount of sensational and simplistic; some of it downright untrue press', they point out on their website).

"We propose that the personal use of drugs should not be a crime," The Greens declare.

"This is based on the belief that punishing individual drug users actually does more harm than good. People use illegal drugs for complex reasons, and the widespread use of illegal drugs indicates that the criminal law is not acting as a deterrent'," they point out.
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