NOT IN NORTHAM

FAR too much emotion surrounds the naltrexone debate. We should deal only
with the facts. In July 2000 George O'Neil said on radio 6PR that his
proposed clinic in Northam was not in the centre of town. In fact, the
proposed site is 200 metres from a school, 100 metres from the main
shopping precinct and over the road from an aged persons"hostel and
surrounded by residential housing.

He also stated that there was no community backlash for this proposal. In
two weeks 1283 residents voiced their disapproval and 135 were in favour of
the clinic in its proposed location.

There was a public meeting in Northam where Bruce Houston, the
administrator from the Australian Medical Procedures Research Foundation,
said that since the clinic in Subiaco had been in business home burglaries
had gone down by 20 per cent, pharmacy burglaries had gone down by 50 per
cent and car thefts were down by 80 per cent. In fact, there was a 234 per
cent increase in such offences compared with the year before the clinic opened.

Mr Houston claimed to the people of Northam that the clinic had an 80 per
cent success rate in curing opiate-addicted patients. However, a recently
completed two-year study of the Subiaco clinic shows that the figure is
more like 10 per cent.

Seventy-four per cent of male and 63 per cent of female heroin addicts have
hepatitis C. Most addicts have mental health problems.

To all you people in Perth who think that the proposed clinic in Northam is
a good idea, ask yourselves this: would you like to have such a clinic over
the road or next door to your child's school?

Our group found an alternative site in a rural setting, but Dr O'Neil
thought that this property was unsuitable.

P. MORTON, chairman, Northam Action Group.