TWO YEARS AFTER SUMMIT, HEROIN USERS GET YOUNGER

Two Years After The Historic NSW Drug Summit, First-Time Heroin Users Are
Younger Than Ever And Health Authorities Report A Rise In People Injecting
Drugs.

The Premier said yesterday that future governments would need to spend more
on drug treatment and education than his four-year commitment of $176
million, as a result of the Drug Summit, in May 1999.

In the 1960s and '70s, average first-time heroin users were aged 27. They
are now 17, notes Dr Alex Wodak, the director of alcohol and drug services
at St Vincent's Hospital.

Dr Wodak attended a press conference called by Mr Carr yesterday, marking
the two years since the Drug Summit. Thousands of drug users had been
helped in those two years, Mr Carr said, and Dr Wodak called the State
money a "valiant attempt" to address the problem.

"Is it enough? Of course it isn't enough," he told the Herald.

"And I hope that in two, three, four years down the track that more money
will be given to this problem because, frankly, it's needed. It's been
needed for a long time.

"Injectable drugs of all kinds, but especially heroin and amphetamines,
appears to be increasing.

"My suspicion is that it's got a lot to do with long-term high levels of
youth unemployment," he said.

While heroin was in short supply in Australia from last November to April -
linked to droughts in the cultivation countries of Burma and Afghanistan -
it was returning to normal.

"This is going to be a long-term battle," Mr Carr said.

"While our fellow citizens make themselves vulnerable by resorting to a
potentially addictive drug - that includes tobacco - this battle will go
on. I see us having to make this financial commitment and trial different
approaches, try different policies, for a long time into the future."

Mr Carr said the drug summit spending commitments had resulted in 2,600
more patients on methadone programs (bringing the State total to 15,200),
three detoxification facilities, 62 new rehabilitation beds, an extra 250
people a month in rural areas receiving counselling and the expanded use of
treatment drugs.

The Youth Drug Court trial and the 18-month injecting room trial at Kings
Cross were other Drug Summit initiatives.

Department of Health statistics show 2 per cent of the NSW population had
tried heroin in 1998.

Australian opioid-related deaths among people aged 15 to 40 rose from 400
in the mid-'90s to 700 in the late '90s. Almost 300 died in NSW last year.

A rise in heroin users injecting cocaine powder has been partly linked to
cyclical heroin shortages in Sydney.

But Dr Wodak said most drug workers did not believe it has heralded the
beginning of "a new day when heroin will be in short supply, because even
that period has seen prices go up, crime's up".

There were some benefits, such as fewer deaths, but Dr Wodak said: "People
are now saying supply is returning to normal levels."

The Chief Health Officer, Dr Andrew Wilson, said a shortage of skilled drug
and alcohol staff was the "constraining factor" on expanding treatment
programs.

The Health Department recently completed a review of staff needs, finding
that nurses and trained drug and alcohol workers were the most difficult to
attract and retain.