- 11 -

I just want to make clear that we are not and never should be in a position where it's merely good enough to offer up a good idea in an important course and you can get the financing for it. I don't think that's good government. But I do think we recognise in Government that work in this area has to have priority if we have to stop slithering down the slope which other communities have found themselves descending to their huge damage. So good ideas we will look at positively and we will be as generously as our budget allows.

I just want to go over some of those measures in a moment and we will make available a full list, a full list of our Forward Action Plan to everyone at the end of the meeting.

But this isn't the end of the story. This is the Government's contribution, its payment on account if you like, to kick-start our "Beat Drugs" campaign. Some of these measures in fact address, in full or in part, concerns that we have heard during the discussion here today, many of which the Government shares.

But there have been other concerns, other ideas, other initiatives set out today, which aren't covered in our Forward Action Plan.

A number of their contributions have particularly struck me and it's perhaps invidious to name names. But I've been very struck by what's been said about research, the inadequacy of research, the importance of basing the development of policy on a rational approach. I was struck by one or two contributions which remain saying that there wasn't much point in having this sort of discussion unless we were prepared to have a radical look at what we were doing and what we should do. I was very struck by what was said earlier about the importance of involving the people at whom the publicity is targeted, in drawing up publicity in the first place. And I was struck by what people said about sentencing and about the views of the community on the facilities which are available for drug abusers.

Well, one of the main purposes of this Summit was to share ideas and to seek to build join solutions from them. I am therefore going to ask the Chairman of ACAN and the Commissioner for Narcotics to set up a special action group from within ACAN to review as a matter of urgency all the constructive proposals that have been put forward at this discussion today and to report to me personally within three months, with recommendations as to what future action should be taken.

Share This Page