HEROIN TREATMENT UNDER FIRE

The WA Health Department raised serious concerns about controversial
heroin treatment doctor George O'Neil as recently as January,
according to a letter obtained by The West Australian.

The seven-page letter was drafted by senior departmental policy
adviser David Wray for then premier Richard Court to send to Dr
O'Neil. The letter raises a range of concerns including
over-prescribing of medication such as the date-rape drug Rohypnol.

Details of the letter surfaced as Queensland's Medical Board appointed
an investigator to examine the use of naltrexone by Brisbane doctor
Stuart Reece.

A departmental spokeswoman said on Friday that the department had
moved to restrict the prescription of such drugs from the clinic after
its data indicated that addicts attending Dr O'Neil's Subiaco clinic
were getting prescriptions for big quantities of drugs in demand on
the illicit market.The letter also said the Naltrexone Treatment Trust
fund, an independent body set up by the former government to channel
public money to Dr O'Neil, wanted to ensure that all the payments were
for work related to the naltrexone program. It also challenged Dr
O'Neil's public claims about the success rate of naltrexone and that
crime rates had dropped significantly as a result of his program.

"You would appreciate that the Government is concerned that limited
resources for the treatment of opiate addiction are spent in the most
efficient manner and to date research data does not indicate the 90
per cent success rate as has repeatedly been claimed," the letter said.

Medical Board of Queensland registrar John Greenaway would not discuss
details of the complaints received by the board. But the Courier-Mail
newspaper reported there had been 24 deaths among almost 850 patients
treated by Dr Reece since July 1998.

It said naltrexone implants, which are inserted into patients"abdomens
to block the effects of heroin, had not undergone any clinical trials
and were not approved for human use.

It is understood that Dr O'Neil has sold naltrexone implants to Dr
Reece. The letter said hospital emergency departments and other drug
service workers had reported high rates of naltrexone use among
overdose patients. It asked Dr O'Neil to explain what steps he had put
in place to stop the deaths.

The department's pharmaceutical services section had advised that one
patient received more than 2700 buprenorphine tablets, a potent
analgesic, over a six-month period. Another was prescribed 367
flunitrazepam tablets, or Rohypnol, over four months.

Mr Wray drafted the letter in January for then health minister John
Day, who forwarded it to Mr Court to send to Dr O'Neil.

Mr Day said that whether Mr Court chose to send the letter was a
matter for Mr Court. Its contents justified the previous government's
caution over funding Dr O'Neil.

Mr Court declined to comment. Dr O'Neil did not respond to attempts to
contact him.